APEC forum vows to reduce economic gap<\/p>\n
CEBU, Philippines (Agencies): The Asia-Pacific Economic
\nCooperation (APEC) forum pledged yesterday not just to remove
\ntrade barriers but also to work towards narrowing the economic
\ngap among members, officials said.<\/p>\n
\"It is embedded in the APEC principles to reduce disparity in
\nthe region,\" Philippine Assistant Secretary for Trade Policy
\nEdsel Custodio told reporters during a four-day meeting of APEC
\nsenior officials in the central Philippine city of Cebu.<\/p>\n
\"Economic and technical cooperation is an equally important
\npillar of APEC, as important as trade and investment
\nliberalization,\" Chinese delegation leader Wang Yusheng was
\nquoted by Reuters as saying.<\/p>\n
APEC is potentially the world's biggest and wealthiest
\nregional trade grouping. But it is also the most diverse, with
\nadvanced economies such as Japan and the United States alongside
\nless developed countries such as Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n
\"We talk aloud about trade and investment liberalization but
\nquite a lot of members remain underdeveloped,\" Wang added.<\/p>\n
The forum comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China,
\nHong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua
\nNew Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan,
\nThailand and the United<\/p>\n
Fund<\/p>\n
The forum also approved yesterday guidelines for selection and
\nprocedures for disbursement of a 10-billion-yen (US$100 million)
\nfund to be made available by the Japanese government to the
\ngroup.<\/p>\n
Antonio Basilio, deputy chairman of APEC's Senior Officials
\nMeeting, was quoted by UPI as saying that the grant has been
\nearmarked for trade and investment liberalization and
\nfacilitation projects.<\/p>\n
It was initially proposed by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama
\nin the third APEC Summit in Osaka, Japan and has since been
\ninformally called the Murayama Fund.<\/p>\n
The seven-year-old APEC hopes to completely open trade and
\ninvestments in the region by the year 2010 for industrialized
\neconomies and 2020 for developing economies.<\/p>\n
Basilio said the fund would be handled by the APEC secretariat
\nand applications for its use would be given to them. The
\napplications would then be forwarded to the budget and
\nadministration committee, which has been tasked to endorse
\nprojects worthy of funding to the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM).<\/p>\n
The SOM in Cebu, 350 miles (560 km) south of Manila, is the
\nsecond of four such meetings scheduled before the 4th APEC Summit
\nto be held in November at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone just north
\nof Manila.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the Japanese delegation said the entire $100 million
\nwould not be given to APEC in bulk. It would be disbursed in
\ntranches, depending on the projects approved by the group.<\/p>\n
The delegation said most likely to be funded first is a
\nseminar on customs evaluation, valued at $300,000. The date and
\nvenue have not been finalized.<\/p>\n
Prior to the SOM, related meetings were held since May 17 by
\nthe Sub-committee on Customs and Procedures, Intellectual
\nProperty Rights Group, Experts Group Meeting on Mutual
\nRecognition Arrangements on Food Products and Sub-committee on
\nStandards and Conformance.<\/p>\n
The Sub-committee on Customs Procedures concluded with the
\nsubmission by Canada and Japan of a framework for technical
\nassistance and human resources development. The framework is
\nexpected to enable the sub-committee to complete a nine-point
\naction plan that includes the harmonization of tariff structure,
\ntransparency of customs procedures and protection of intellectual
\nproperty rights.<\/p>\n
The sub-committee has completed a summary report of the
\nimplementation schedules for each economy based on facilitation,
\naccountability, consistency, transparency and simplification. It
\nhas surpassed all other sub-committees and experts groups in the
\naccomplishment of tasks, mainly because it has spent more time
\nwith lengthy discussions.<\/p>\n
The Asia-Pacific region, with a combined output of $13
\ntrillion, makes up about 56 percent of the world's gross domestic
\nproduct and more than 46 percent of the world's total merchandise
\ntrade. About 40 percent of the world's population live in the
\nregion, which occupies 30 percent of the world's land area.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/apec-forum-vows-to-reduce-economic-gap-1447893297",
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