ISDS Case Map
APEC
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
Developing economies within APEC were lukewarm to moves by wealthier members to use the annual forum to hammer out a free-trade area, a senior Philippine diplomat said on Monday.
At their latest annual summit in Vietnam in November 2006, the leaders of the 21 members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum agreed to “seriously consider” negotiating a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP).
Asia Pacific mining ministers wound up a talkfest in Perth today vowing to explore a free trade agreement between Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) members that would dwarf all other FTAs.
Australia has dismissed plans for an APEC free trade agreement, arguing that member countries are too busy cementing other trade deals to give it serious attention.
Susan Schwab, US trade representative, on the prospects for turning the 21 economies of Apec into a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP); current talks about bilateral trade deals in Asia; the expiration in June next year of trade promotion authority (TPA); and the expected signing of a bilateral trade agreement between the US and Russia.
A US proposal to set up a massive Pacific Rim free-trade zone will be set aside for study until a regional meeting next year in Australia, a Japanese official said Wednesday.
Thailand opposes a US proposal to upgrade the voluntary Apec trade agreement to a legally binding Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, saying it is unnecessary and impractical.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum's reported move to launch discussions on the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific region (FTAAP) reflects Washington's wariness of an initiative for East Asia's economic integration centering around the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The United States has sounded out its Asian and Pacific partners on the possibility of creating a regional free trade agreement as a ‘middle- and long-term' objective, a press report said on Sunday.
US President George W. Bush is expected to push for a plan to improve the patchwork of free trade initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region at the annual APEC summit in Vietnam next month.
