Trade Ministers from the 21 APEC member economies recently issued a statement at the conclusion of their meeting in Boracay on expanding trade and spurring economic activity towards strong, sustainable and inclusive growth.
The statement, reflecting the outcomes of the 2015 APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting chaired by Philippine Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo, describes joint actions to be taken forward by APEC members in the following priority areas: Supporting the Multilateral Trading System; Enhancing the Regional Economic Integration Agenda; Fostering SMEs’ Participation in Regional and Global Markets.
Investing in Human Capital Development; Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities; Strengthening Economic and Technical Cooperation.
Trade Ministers considered a briefing by World Trade Organisation Director-General Roberto Azevedo on the state of the multilateral trading system and the Post-Bali work programme as well as private sector policy guidance offered by 2015 APEC Business Advisory Council Chair Doris Ho and representatives of APEC’s Official Observers—the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and Pacific Islands Forum.
In supporting for the Multilateral Trading System, on the WTO, trade ministers all encouraged by the progress made by the WTO to implement the Bali Package resulting from the 9th Ministerial Conference (MC9). With the adoption of the Protocol of Amendment for the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), three (3) APEC members have already notified their acceptance of the protocol. All APEC members have committed to submit the instruments of acceptance to the WTO by the 10th Ministerial Conference.
To enhance the Regional Economic Integration Agenda, “We started the process for the Collective Strategic Study on Issues Related to the Realization of the FTAAP (‘Collective Strategic Study’). We have a Task Force which will undertake the Collective Strategic Study. The study will be completed in 2016 but we will have a report on its progress by the APEC Leaders’ Week this November”, Gregory Domingo said.
APEC members reaffirmed green growth objective to reduce our applied tariffs to five percent or less by the end of 2015 on the APEC List of Environmental Goods as endorsed by Leaders in 2012. By November 2015, we hope to demonstrate APEC’s successful achievement of this ground-breaking commitment.
APEC members continue to make good progress towards a seamless and comprehensively connected and integrated Asia Pacific region by implementing the APEC Connectivity Blueprint for 2015-2025. We have many initiatives, including on improving connectivity to and from remote areas (led by Indonesia).
The APEC Services Cooperation Framework (ASCF) and the APEC Virtual Knowledge Centre on Services will be continued to develop. The services sector is an important component and economic dynamism in all our economies. All members promote an enabling environment for services trade and investment as well as improve the competitiveness of our services sectors to meet the Bogor Goals and strengthen regional economic integration.
Fostering MSMEs’ Participation in Regional and Global Markets by recognize that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are an important force in economic activity, growth, job creation, community resilience and innovation. We will complement APEC’s initiatives on promoting SMEs’ participation in GVCs with an agenda that will support micro and small enterprises as direct exporters.
APEC trade ministers endorsed Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize MSMEs. This is an action-oriented initiative that supports APEC’s on-going work to address the barriers faced by MSMEs in international trade. Through the Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize MSMEs, we will facilitate micro and small enterprises’ access to regional and global markets; identified priority areas for cooperation and action on trade facilitation, e-commerce, financing and institutional support, including for women-led MSMEs.
Huong Ly
Vietnamese
