Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

Abstract

AbstractAsia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an intergovernmental forum for increasing trade and investment as well as economic cooperation in the Asia Pacific region. It began in 1989 as a series of annual meetings of foreign and trade ministers from 12 member economies (the five industrialized economies of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States, the Republic of Korea, and the six ASEAN members of Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand), focusing on economic cooperation. Three Chinas (the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Chinese Taipei) joined in 1991. Since the first Economic Leaders' Meeting in Seattle in 1993, APEC leaders declared that they would achieve “free and open trade and investment in the region.” In 1994 they declared ambitious Bogor Goals, setting a deadline for achieving them by 2010 for industrialized economies and by 2020 for the rest of the members. The Osaka Action Agenda was adopted in 1995, and since 1997 each member economy has been submitting an annual Individual Action Plan (IAP) detailing their actions to meet the Bogor Goals and implementing them.