A group of Republican lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee also sent a letter to Biden in November calling on the administration to begin digital trade negotiations with U.S. allies and partners in Asia to set “high standards” in the region. The United States is also not part of a mega-trade deal involving 15 Asia-Pacific countries, including China, Japan and South Korea, signed in November. Beijing, meanwhile, said in November that it had asked to join an agreement between Singapore, Chile and New Zealand to work together on digital trade. On Friday, the leaders of Japan and New Zealand warned countries against the temptation to retreat to trade protectionism. But APEC also has distinct drawbacks as a forum for serious trade negotiations. APEC is not a mini-WTO in which serious negotiations lead to compromises and agreements at the negotiating table. In order to avoid contentious negotiations, APEC has put in place a more confrontational process with serious drawbacks. APEC leaders adopted Putrajaya Vision 2040, a new 20-year growth vision to replace the Bogor Goals, named after the Indonesian city where leaders agreed on free and open trade and investment in 1994.
APEC recognizes the important role that regional trade agreements (RTAs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) can play in trade liberalization in the APEC region. The United States should strongly promote the idea of open mutual regionalism as the centerpiece around which new rounds of sectoral or thematic liberalization efforts are organized. Some countries will have reservations about embarking headlong into an overly ambitious liberalization program. But given the outward-looking economic orientation of all APEC members, even countries with activist national development strategies are likely to ultimately support a process that generally favors trade (while allowing a safe haven for a valued industry promotion policy). “We recognize the importance of a free, open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent and predictable trade and investment environment to stimulate economic recovery at such a difficult time,” the joint statement said. Through APEC, the United States seeks to advance a free, fair, and open economic policy agenda that benefits U.S. workers, businesses, and families. The 21 APEC member countries account for about 47% of world trade.
In 2020, other APEC members were targeted for more than 62.2% of U.S. goods exports, and six of the Top 10 U.S. export markets are APEC members. Private sector input through collaboration with the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and regular technical exchanges between governments, business leaders, and other stakeholders is critical to ensuring that APEC offers pragmatic solutions to key challenges facing U.S. workers and businesses at home and in the region. At least for a few regions, APEC members can account for such a large share of a product`s global exports that APEC liberalization mainly benefits its own members – even if others abroad ultimately decide not to reciprocate. Information technology is one such area, and APEC`s success with at ITA confirms the idea of APEC as a springboard for some global sectoral liberalization initiatives. Consumer electronics, trucks, bicycles and some industrial chemicals pass a similar test, with APEC members accounting for 70% or more of global trade. But the product areas that would pass such a test are not many, and it seems that with the ITA, the least dry fruits have already been picked. And in regions where APEC members do not massively dominate global trade, it is difficult to see why non-members would likely accept a trade deal negotiated by a self-proclaimed APEC Executive Committee for the global economy, as was the case with the ITA.
If China joins the CPTPP, it would make Xi`s government a member of the two largest trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific region, while Washington is not part of either. IAPs should not be at the heart of voluntary and non-essential unilateral liberalisation efforts, but should be transformed into something more useful – a common set of analytical reporting obligations – that provides a realistic and comparable annual review of progress towards liberalisation. In addition, APEC should seek ways to improve the basic physical and administrative infrastructure for trade, build closer relations with multilateral development banks, and address regional environmental issues that are unlikely to be addressed otherwise. www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/fta-ale.aspx?lang=eng djpen.kemendag.go.id/app_frontend/links/58-free-trade-agreement www.trade.gov.tw/english/Pages/List.aspx?nodeID=672`APEC ensures that goods, services, investments and people can be easily transported across borders. Members will facilitate such trade by speeding up customs procedures at borders; a more favourable business climate across the border; and harmonization of regulations and standards throughout the region. For example, APEC`s initiatives to synchronize regulatory systems are an important step towards integrating the Asia-Pacific economy. A product can be more easily exported to all economies with a single set of common standards. One of the priorities that President Joe Biden`s administration is expected to work on with other APEC colleagues, which include countries like Japan and Australia, is to promote a “common set of technology standards, including the possibility of a digital trade deal,” the two said. Even in the United States, with its longstanding commitment to open markets, it is hard to imagine how further dismantling of already weak trade barriers can find domestic political support without APEC members promising tangible reductions. And while it`s hard to imagine this happening gradually over the next few years, it`s doubly difficult to see this as a Big Bang in 2010, without an iron guarantee that the rest of APEC, and probably Europe, will eventually reciprocate. .