14th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting Closes with Ha Noi Declaration
In the special statement on the DDA of WTO negotiations, the leaders welcomed Viet Nam's accession to the WTO and the completion of a milestone towards Russia's admission to the WTO. They also expressed their determination to resume negotiations without further delay to achieve an ambitious and balanced outcome from the DDA negotiations.
Contained in the 14th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting Declaration are reference model measures for Regional Trade Agreements/Free Trade Agreements (RTAs/FTAs), an endorsement of the Hanoi Action Plan to implement the Busan Roadmap, cooperation on counter-terrorism initiatives and trade security, approval of an action plan to prevent and respond to Avian and influenza pandemics, as well as a commitment and agreement to pursue sustainable development and prosperity through APEC reforms.
The action plan to implement the Busan Roadmap and the development of model measures for RTAs/FTAs as well as guidelines for intellectual property rights protection and enforcement were the key initiatives sought by the Korean Government, which played a leading role in the course of discussing and drawing up the conclusions.
The APEC economic leaders welcomed the completion of the Report on Socio-Economic Disparity in the APEC region, an undertaking that had been proposed by the Korean head of state and carried out throughout this year. They also emphasized the importance of enhancing activities across APEC fora in order to combat socio-economic disparity issues in the region. APEC 2006 proved the regional body as a socially conscious forum that reaches beyond the liberalization of investment and trade and explores the issue on distributing the fruits of the cross-border activities evenly among the different strata of society.
The leaders welcomed the Korea's decision to contribute US$2 million to the APEC Support Fund over the next 3 years beginning in 2007 to aid the capacity building activities for APEC developing economies. The regional forum applauded Korea's efforts toward economic and technological cooperation among APEC economies. Korea's contribution reflects its growing stature as an advanced trading nation.
APEC leaders endorsed the Hanoi Action Plan, follow-up measures to the Busan Roadmap towards the Bogor Goals. When implemented faithfully for a continuous expansion of cross-border trading, the Hanoi Action Plan will help cut unnecessary trading costs and reduce administrative overhead. This will in turn foster a business-friendly environment.
APEC's commitment to open trade was evident in APEC 2006, when its leaders supported the efforts by regional exporters and importers to reduce time and costs under a "single window" system. A single window is a facility that allows trading and transportation companies to lodge standardized information and documents with a single entry point to fulfill all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements. The substantive contribution of APEC 2006 to the regional community was also manifested by its trade promotion plan that targets a further reduction of transaction costs by 5 percent in the region by 2010.
The Meeting adopted model measures for six RTAs/FTAs chapters, including one concerning dispute resolution, which was prepared by Korea; work on model measures will continue through 2007. When APEC uses the model measures as the reference for negotiating high-quality FTAs, member economies should reap genuine reduction in trade transaction costs that may otherwise be very high.
The 14th APEC also adopted two new model guidelines concerning protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), which were proposed by Korea and other members. These guidelines will provide Korean and other international businesses protection of their IPR in the international market, encouraging them to concentrate on developing technologies without being excessively concerned about their being pirated.
The Meeting decided to study the possibility of forming a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) as a long-term prospect that goes beyond the Bogor Goals. As they start discussing feasibility of the FTAAP next year, member nations will actively monitor views of business and other professionals, with a special emphasis on ways to fine-tune economic and social diversities of member nations.
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2008년 8월 6일 17:22
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