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APEC Strives for Trade & Investment Liberalization and Facilitation
How to best promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation (TILF) became a hot topic at meetings Friday attended by representatives from member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
Other meetings of the APEC Third Senior Officials Meeting (SOM III) opened Thursday in this coastal city in northeast China; Friday continued with meetings of Investment Experts Group, Market Access Group and Informal Expert Group on Business Mobility, which all focused on TILF.
Sources say TILF, side by side with economic and technical cooperation, are commonly called the "three pillars" of APEC. Sometimes, TILF and economic and technical cooperation are termed as the "two wheels" of APEC.
Extending a welcome to colleagues from other APEC economies, representatives from China presented a report on the second APEC Investment Mart held in Yantai in June and briefed guests on the developments related to the TRIMs seminar to be held in September in Xia'men, southeast China's Fujian Province.
Zhang Shaogang, a representative from China, said that China has always valued trade and investment within APEC economies, as APEC represents the biggest regional organization in the Asia- Pacific region.
China has always actively participated in various activities and programs organized by APEC, including setting objectives and framework of APEC, he pointed out.
Leaders of all APEC economies have set a long-term objective related to the realization of TILF, which is that industrial members and developing members of APEC would realize TILF by the year 2010 and 2020, respectively.
To date, APEC economies are seriously putting forward the realization of this objective, he said.
He noted that the APEC Market Access Group is specializing in discussing issues concerning lowering tariff rates, reducing non- tariff measures and improving market access conditions, such as working out specific goals and measures, and setting up databases and trade statistics.
Business mobility is another major topic of these meetings. Participants believed that TILF involves three aspects, namely, goods, service and business mobility. With the deepening of globalization, all APEC economies are exploring more convenient and quicker measures regarding cross-border procedures and business trips.
During the meetings, some representatives have also presented new topics and proposals concerning TILF and APEC collective actions. APEC developing members hope developed members will give them help through such methods as capacity building.
It is learned that the 7th APEC Investment Symposium and 3rd Investment Mart will be held in Russia from September 4 to 7, 2002.
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