At their meeting in Singapore during 15 to 16 February, APEC Senior Officials took stock of measures to address the global economic crisis, reaffirmed their commitment to resist protectionist pressures, and agreed on initiatives to accelerate regional economic integration.

Addressing the Economic Crisis

2 APEC Senior Officials emphasised the importance of taking appropriate fiscal, monetary and social resilience measures to help businesses and individuals tide over the economic crisis, which would relieve domestic pressure for trade restrictive measures that protect local jobs and industries. “There was a strong consensus that restrictions on trade and investment would only deepen and prolong the economic downturn,” said Mr Ravi Menon, 2nd Permanent Secretary of the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry and APEC 2009 Chair of the Senior Officials’ Meeting.

3 Noting that fiscal, monetary, and credit facilitative measures by individual APEC economies had positive spillover effects on other economies, Senior Officials directed the APEC Secretariat to set up an information sharing mechanism which would allow economies to share best practices in policy responses and identify possible areas for policy co-ordination and co-operation.

4 APEC Singapore 2009 also brought together, for the first time, APEC Senior Officials and APEC Senior Finance Officials for a joint dialogue, to exchange views on their respective economies’ response to the global financial and economic crisis. In particular, officials discussed the problem of trade financing and shared information on measures taken by various economies to facilitate trade financing.

Supporting the Multilateral Trading System

5 Senior Officials noted with concern the rise in protectionist pressures globally and reaffirmed their commitment to resist these pressures and avoid protectionist measures in their domestic policy responses to the economic crisis. They agreed that it was important to monitor compliance with the commitment made by APEC Leaders in Lima in November 2008 to refrain from raising new barriers to trade and investment or stimulating exports in a manner inconsistent with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

6 Senior Officials will draw on the WTO mechanism to monitor trade policy and inputs from the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) as the basis for a report on compliance with the Leaders’ commitment in Lima. This report will be tabled for discussion by the Ministers Responsible for Trade at their meeting in Singapore in July this year.

Accelerating Regional Economic Integration

7 Senior Officials agreed that APEC’s best contribution to sustaining growth in the Asia-Pacific region over the medium-term would be through accelerating regional economic integration. It would help cut business costs, and rebuild confidence. They also agreed that the economic crisis was an opportunity to carry out structural reforms that would help boost competitiveness and better position economies for recovery.

8 “We agreed on a threefold comprehensive approach to accelerate regional economic integration: first, liberalising trade and investment flows ‘at the border’; second, improving the business environment ‘behind the border’; and third, enhancing physical connectivity ‘across the border’,” said Mr Menon.

9 Within the ongoing multi-year workplan to accelerate trade and investment liberalisation, Senior Officials decided to focus on: a) making the rules of origin of existing free trade agreements more business-friendly; b) identifying possible vehicles for a future Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP); and c) deepening analysis of an FTAAP.

10 With respect to improving the business environment, Senior Officials agreed to look into simplifying business regulations, to make it easier, faster and cheaper for business to carry out specific business functions, such as starting a business, getting a license, and trading across borders.

11 Senior Officials also agreed to look into improving logistics and transport networks to enhance physical connectivity ‘across the border’, to further reduce the time, cost, and uncertainty in moving goods along the entire supply chain.

Seeking Inputs from Business

12 APEC Senior Officials agreed on the importance of seeking business inputs and meeting business needs in the development and implementation of its various work priorities. APEC Senior Officials and ABAC representatives held their first joint dialogue in Wellington, New Zealand, on 10 February where business inputs were sought on measures to accelerate regional economic integration and incorporated into APEC Senior Officials’ workplans. ABAC would conduct a survey in all 21 APEC member economies to seek business inputs on the key impediments they face in doing business in Asia-Pacific economies and propose solutions to remove or reduce these impediments. Results of the survey would be used by APEC Senior Officials to identify priority reform areas for its efforts to improve the business environment.

APEC 2009 SOM Chair Office
16 FEBRUARY 2009

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Annex A

About APEC

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is the premier forum for facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region.

APEC is the only inter governmental grouping in the world operating on the basis of non-binding commitments, open dialogue and equal respect for the views of all participants. Unlike the WTO or other multilateral trade bodies, APEC has no treaty obligations required of its participants. Decisions made within APEC are reached by consensus and commitments are undertaken on a voluntary basis.

Since its formation in 1989, APEC has grown to encompass 21 members spanning across the four continents and is representative of the most economically dynamic regions in the world, accounting for approximately 40 per cent of the world's population, half of world trade and more than half of world GDP.

The 21 APEC Member Economies are Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; The Republic of the Philippines; The Russian Federation; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States and Viet Nam.