The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum was established in 1989 to promote economic integration around the Pacific Rim and to help sustain economic growth through cooperation among the economies. The United States was the driving force behind APEC's creation as a means of anchoring the United States more firmly in the region in the post-Cold War era. The dynamic of APEC changed dramatically in 1993 when President Clinton invited the leaders of member economies to Blake Island, Washington, instituting what has become the annual Leaders' Meetings. This annual gathering of APEC leaders has become an important forum for solving regional economic and trade problems and for advancing APEC's ambitious "Bogor goals" - free and open trade for developed countries by 2010 and developing countries by 2020.

THIS YEAR, PRESIDENT CLINTON AND THE OTHER APEC LEADERS ARE WORKING TO ENSURE THAT ALL APEC MEMBERS WILL BENEFIT FROM THE NEW ECONOMY. THEY ARE FOCUSING ON THREE GOALS:

1. Ensuring that all citizens will benefit from the New Economy by working to bridge the global digital divide, using information technology to promote growth and create new jobs, and applying information technology to business and government to improve efficiency and to enhance the quality of life;

2. Continuing progress toward early launch of a new Round of WTO trade talks and ensuring that regional free trade agreements strengthen the multilateral trading system;

3. "Delivering to the community" in areas such as poverty reduction, worker safety, child labor, environment, small business, social safety nets, education, health and infectious disease.

• Development of an "Action Agenda For The New Economy":
• Maintaining Moratorium on Customs Duties On E-Commerce;
• Promoting Liberal trade approach for E-Commerce;
• Announcing 19 out of 21 APEC Economies Are Currently Completing E-Commerce Readiness Assessment Programs;
• Establishing E-Commerce Readiness Evaluation Action Partnerships;
• Creating a Knowledge Network for Digital Opportunities;
• Launching Electronic Individual Actions Plans On Free Trade & Investment;
• Adopting Standards To Promote Technology Trade; and
• Launching Anti-Piracy Software Initiative.
• Progress Toward Early Launch Of A New Trade Round And Efforts To Strengthen Markets And Boost Growth In The APEC Economies:
  • Working Toward the Launch of a New Trade Round;
  • Announcing A Multilateral Aviation Open Skies Agreement;
  • Increasing Financial Training;
  • Launching Dialogue on Chemical Trade;
  • Promoting Energy Security; and
  • Intensifying Work on Reducing Non-Tariff Measures.

• Delivering To The Community By Investing In People & Reducing Poverty:
  • Strengthening HIV/AIDS Prevention and Establishing A Disease Surveillance Network;
  • Providing Basic Education; and
  • Preventing Abusive Child Labor.

PRESIDENT CLINTON & APEC LEADERS WILL DEVELOP AN "ACTION AGENDA FOR THE NEW ECONOMY": The President and other APEC Leaders will advocate pro-competitive and market-based policies; liberalization of telecommunication and transportation services; efficient customs procedures, shipping and transportation; strong intellectual property protection; and initiatives to strengthen financial markets and make financial services more efficient. They will work on specific actions that will help all countries benefit from the New Economy, including:

• Maintaining Moratorium on Customs Duties on E-Commerce: President Clinton and APEC Leaders will agree to continue the moratorium on customs duties on electronically delivered goods and services until at least the next WTO Ministerial Meeting. By working together to keep new duties out of cyberspace, the APEC economies can better promote innovation and creation of new products and increase the volume of trade online.

• Promoting Liberal Trade Approach for Electronic Commerce: APEC will agree to support the least restrictive approach to regulation of e-commerce and to create a task force in the WTO to study how WTO rules should apply to e-commerce.

• Announcing 19 out of 21 APEC Economies Are Currently Completing E-Commerce Readiness Assessment Programs: Following through on an initiative begun by APEC leaders in 1999, APEC will announce 19 out of 21 APEC economies are now assessing their strengths and weaknesses in e-commerce readiness, based on the APEC Readiness Assessment Guide, which measures basic infrastructure and technology, access to basic services, the current level and use of the internet, impact of e-commerce on the economies, workforce availability, and the regulatory environment. With this critical mass of assessment now in place, APEC leads the world in analyzing what must be done to improve the environment for e-commerce.

• Establishing E-Commerce Readiness Evaluation Action Partnerships: With U.S. leadership, APEC will announce the Readiness Evaluation Action Partnerships (REAPs) initiative. Responding to weaknesses identified in the readiness assessments, the REAPS include practical actions to remove roadblocks to e-commerce by partnering APEC members and the business community to undertake pilot projects to close the digital divide. To kick off this initiative, the United States will work with Indonesian Internet service providers and Vietnamese officials on Internet-related projects.

• Creating a Knowledge Network for Digital Opportunity: President Clinton and the APEC Leaders will call for close cooperation with the Global Business Dialogue on E-Commerce and other private sector entities to join with government to help create digital bridges in the APEC region. That cooperation will include establishing an interactive web-site for private and public sector users in the APEC region to directly contact private sector firms offering initiatives, training and opportunities.

• Launching Electronic Individual Action Plans On Free Trade & Investment: APEC Leaders will launch an Internet-based database of their Individual Action Plans (IAPs) toward free trade and investment in the region by 2010/2020. These e-IAPs will permit easy access to steps each economy is taking, provide a means to compare and assess each Plan, and help identify areas where greater progress is necessary. This is a major diagnostic tool for APEC economies to gauge their progress toward the New Economy.

• Adopting Standards To Promote Technology Trade: APEC will adopt "one test, one standard" procedures for standard conformance for information technology equipment. This streamlined procedure, which has strong private sector support, will improve access to IT technology by lowering the cost of computers and related products to citizens in the region. The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates that the total cost of certification is $1.8 billion per year just for U.S. firms doing business in APEC - so the company savings from duplicative testing costs in multiple economies can be significant.

• Launching Anti-Piracy Software Initiative: APEC will agree to adopt the U.S. proposal for an Anti-Piracy Software Initiative to allow only legitimately licensed software in government offices. The project would promote strong management practices for software and other IP assets in government offices through a program of information exchange and technical cooperation. Software piracy rates average nearly 50% in Asia and over 90% in some countries.

PRESIDENT CLINTON & APEC LEADERS WILL WORK TO STRENGTHEN MARKETS AND BOOST GROWTH IN THE APEC ECONOMIES & MAKE PROGRESS TOWARD EARLY LAUNCH OF A NEW TRADE ROUND:

• Working Toward the Launch of a New Trade Round: Leaders will call on the WTO to launch the new Round and to make meaningful progress in the agricultural and services negotiation now underway. The United States strongly supports a launch as soon as possible next year.

• Announcing A Multilateral Aviation Open Skies Agreement: Leaders from Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States will announce a multilateral aviation agreement, APEC's first multilateral trade agreement. A seamless network of transportation services is essential if the new efficiency of digital commerce is to be meaningful. This agreement will create "open skies" for passenger and cargo service among these APEC economies and is open to accession world-wide, making it an example of "open regionalism."

• Increasing Financial Training: APEC will expand training activities to include not just bank supervisors and securities regulators, who are already receiving training in international banking standards and risk-based lending, but also life insurance and pension managers. At the request of the United States, this year APEC will launch an initiative to fight financial crimes that will include a core curriculum for authorities and an APEC working group to survey regulatory frameworks for fighting financial crimes. Domestic credit to the public and private sectors in leading Asian economies (not including Japan) was $2.4 trillion in 1998 and $2.6 trillion in 1999. Even a moderate reduction of transactions costs from improved regulatory capacity is likely to result in large efficiency gains in these markets, and real systemic effects (such as more favorable regional credit ratings) from collective improvement.

• Launching Dialogue on Chemical Trade: Following on the success of the Auto Sector dialogue in 1999, APEC has agreed to start a Chemicals Dialogue to bring industry together with regulators in the second-most traded sector in the APEC region. This initiative can support further reduction in trade and regulatory barriers in an industry that is essential to APEC manufacturing in both hi-tech and traditional industries. APEC economies currently produce almost $1 trillion worth of chemicals annually and account for 56% of global chemical production.

• Promoting Energy Security: Expressing concern about oil price volatility, leaders will call for balance in the oil markets and action on measures to reduce vulnerability to oil price volatility which can threaten even the most innovative industries.

DELIVERING TO THE COMMUNITY: PRESIDENT CLINTON AND APEC LEADERS WILL AGREE ON INVESTMENTS IN PEOPLE AND TO REDUCE POVERTY:

• Preventing HIV/AIDS and Disease Surveillance Network: The President and APEC Leaders will commit to fight HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases and call for the development of a strategy to address this potential threat to the region. The United States is already committed to fighting AIDS in the APEC region and will announce AIDS funding for FY 2001.

• Providing Basic Education: Leaders will support APEC activities on improving teacher quality, use of technology to improve education, school management, and student and teacher exchanges. The United States is working with other APEC members to create:
  • a clearinghouse for student assessment at a U.S. educational institution that will exchange information on best practices in assessment, permit networking among researchers, developers, and private companies, and assist emerging economies to obtain information on best practices and possible resources for technical assistance, and

  • a web portal for improving teaching, a cooperative program between the United States and Singapore that would allow one-stop shopping for information about strategies to improve teaching in various APEC economies.

• Preventing Abusive Child Labor: With U.S. leadership, APEC is working to eliminate the most abusive forms of child labor by strengthening basic education and programs that keep children in school and out of the work place.

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