"Advancing Free Trade for Asia-Pacific Prosperity"

Presented By:Jitu Panjwani (77)Yuvraj Sahuji (96)

Prajyot Surana (175)

APEC forum

• Regional economic forum• Create greater prosperity for the people of the region by

promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration.

• Operates as a cooperative, multilateral economic and trade forum• Member economies participate on the basis of open dialogue and

respect for views of all participants• No binding commitments or treaty obligations• "bottom-up" and "top-down" approach

Member Economies

Founding Members• Australia• Brunei Darussalam• Canada• Indonesia• Japan• Korea• Malaysia• New Zealand• Philippines• Singapore• Thailand• United States

Other APEC Economies• China, Hong Kong & Chinese

Taipei (1991)• Mexico and Papua New

Guinea (1993)• Chile (1994)• Peru, Russia and Viet Nam

(1998)

1989• APEC begins with 12 founding members -Canberra (Australia)

1993• First meeting at Blake Island (US). "stability, security and prosperity for our peoples."

1994• Free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for

developing economies. -Bogor (Indonesia)

1995• Adopts the Osaka Action Agenda (OAA) -Osaka (Japan)

1997• Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalization (EVSL) in 15 sectors

1998• Agrees on the first nine sectors for EVSL• Seeks an EVSL agreement with non-APEC members at the WTO

2009• Joint meetings of APEC senior trade and finance officials

2010• APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security

2013• First Joint APEC Ministerial Meeting on Women and SMEs issues to promote women entrepreneurship

2016• 4th APEC Food security Ministerial Meeting at Peru

Hist

ory

Mission To support sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the

Asia-Pacific region.

PromoteOpen trade and investmentRegional economic integrationEconomic and technical cooperationHuman securityFavorable and sustainable business environment

Three Pillars of APEC's agenda

Trade and Investment Liberalization

• Reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and investmentRegional Economic Integration

• Advancement of bilateral and regional trade agreements

• Long-term goal of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).

Business Facilitation

• Reduce the time, cost and uncertainty of doing business in the region and open new economic opportunities including for small firms, women and youthStructural Reform

• Development and harmonization of policies that improve market access and efficiency

• Uphold public interest such as the safeguarding of health and safety

Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH)

• Promote trade, investment and robust, secure and sustainable economic growth

• Strengthening anti-corruption

• Cross-border education and skills training

• Emergency preparedness, energy security

• Environmental protection, defense against pandemics &

• Infrastructure development

Osaka Action Agenda

Osaka Action Agenda

• Comprehensiveness • WTO-consistency• Comparability• Non-discrimination• Transparency• Standstill• Simultaneous start,

continuous process and differentiated timetables

• Flexibility• Cooperation

Individual Action Plans

• Tariffs• Non-tariff measures• Services• Investment• Standards and conformance• Customs procedures• IPR• Competition policy• Government procurement• Dispute mediation• Mobility of business people• Information gathering and

analysis• Transparency

Collective Action Plans

• Collection all IAP of each member economies

• Used to set outline and objectives as well as free trade & investment goal

Stakeholder Participation

Business Participation

Academic and Research Institution Participation

Women's Participation

Benefits of APEC

How has the region Benefited?Promoting Regional Economic Integration and Trade:-

APEC implements a wide variety of initiatives to help integrate the region’s economies and promote trade while addressing sustainability and social equity.

Promoting trade in region

Faster custom

procedures

Structural reforms

Connecting regions

Reducing barriers

Making trade easier across bordersAPEC policy promoted free and open trade in the region by reducing barriers

and promoting free flow of goods. Which resulted in reduction in transaction costs. Between 2004-2006 reduction noted about 5%, and further from 2007-2010 again reduced by more 5%.

Making it easier to do business• APEC launched its ease of doing business plan in 2009.• Between 2009-2014 member economies improved ease of doing

business in region in all areas of initiative by 11.3%• Construction permits are issued faster than ever dropping 18.7%

from 169 days to 134 days in last four years.• Starting a company in the region is also simpler because of no of

procedures failing by 20.7%.

Faster custom Procedures

(Source: apec.org)

Structural reformTo foster transparency, competition and better functioning markets through regulatory reform.Improving public sector and corporate governance and strengthening legal infrastructure.Connecting the region connecting regions through improvement in physical infrastructure linkages, people mobility and institutional ties across Asia pacific.these are the initiatives taken for better connectivity:- APEC business travel card:-160000 travelers use this service.Special lanes are arranged at all leading airports for faster clearances.19 members fully participate in the scheme while Canada and USA are transitional members.APEC Supply Chain Connectivity:-Between 2009-2013 lead time to import fell by an average 25%.And lead time for export by 21%.Nurturing small businessesNurturing the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises.

APEC Summit

APEC SUMMIT A year long hosting of meetings between 21 APEC

member countries. Annual APEC Economic Leaders Meeting is the

main event in this summit. The summit is hosted every year by a member

country. Host country for last summit in 2015 was

Philippines. This year it is hosted by Peru.

APEC Peru 2016 This year it is hosted by Peru at 7 venues in

country. Second time after previous hosting of 2008. Quality Growth & Human Development is the

theme for this year.

Major Events• APEC Economic Leaders Meeting.• APEC CEO Summit.

Agenda Four priority areas were laid out as topics to be discussed.

Human Capital DevelopmentUpgrading SME’sRegional Food MarketRegional Economic integration Agenda

Major eventsAPEC Economic Leaders Meeting

(19-20 November 2016 Venue – Lima)

• It is attended by the heads of governments of member countries.

• A famous tradition is followed in this meeting is all national leaders attend it dressed in Traditional costume of host country.

• The main four agendas Will be addressed by the leaders of member countries.

Major events

APEC CEO Summit• Its An Asia-Pacific Premier business event.• The CEO Summit is held within the framework

of APEC and is organized by ABAC.• Here business executives get opportunity to- Meet Economic Leaders, ministers and government officials. Discover business opportunities by networking with top Asia-

Pacific Company CEO’s. Forge connections with thought leaders from around the region

and the world.

Some other events APEC SME O2O Forum (6th September) 23rd SME ministerial meeting (9th September) 48th Meeting of APEC expert group on Energy

Efficiency & Conservation (11th September) APEC 2016 Food security week (16-27th

September) Ocean Fisheries working group (20th September) Agricultural technical cooperation working group.

(20th September)

APEC & India• India has applied for its membership of APEC in

1991 (25 years ago).• India has been observer of the forum since 2011.• Modi governments act east policy for east Asian

economies.• What are barriers in India's membership into

APEC• What are benefits to India and APEC both of

India joining APEC.

Why India is not yet an APEC member?• India's Extra regional status. • After 1997 APEC Decide to not expand its

members for 10 years.(which continues informally till 2011)

• TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) India is not member of TPP because of lacking in standards,

and lot of work needed to improve labour, intellectual property, government procurement.

• India has to improve on its liberalization policies and bureaucratic issues which affects in international trade.

Benefits for India• Free trade access to markets of huge economies like USA,

Russia, Japan, Australia and other pacific countries.• Marketing diversification to India and subsequent

Strenghthing of India's export sector.• It will attract more trade which will require more

infrastructure and this will result in availability of more jobs. This will lead to development of human resources.

• If India wants to sustain its growth rate at 8-10%, access to more markets is needed.

• Growing economic independence will attract more FDI & FII which will generate more capital for our ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Benefits for APEC • As per world banks report, India is going to be fourth

largest economy by 2020.• India has the huge potential market ability• The young Demographic dividend of India can play

role of an asset for most of the countries in APEC having older generation of employee (Japan, Russia etc.) which might create trouble for them in future.

• Potential to shape India trade policies to facilitate easier access to Indian markets for APEC members.

• Ref.• http

://dfat.gov.au/international-relations/regional-architecture/apec.aspx

• http://www.apec.org/• http://

www.insightsonindia.com/2016/02/23/5-india-trying-become-member-asia-pacific-economic-cooperation-apec-forum

• http://www.insightsonindia.com/2016/02/23/5-india-trying-become-member-asia-pacific-economic-cooperation-apec-forum

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia-Pacific_Economic_Cooperation

Thank you….!

Jitu panjwani(77)Yuvraj Sahuji(96)

Prajyot Surana(175)