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Office of the Press Secretary
(Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release November 15, 2000
PRESIDENT CLINTON & APEC LEADERS: WORKING TOGETHER TO MEET THE
CHALLENGES OF THE 21st CENTURY NEW ECONOMY
The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum was established in
1989 to promote economic integration around the Pacific Rim and to help
sustain economic growth through cooperation among the economies. The
United States was the driving force behind APEC's creation as a means of
anchoring the United States more firmly in the region in the post-Cold
War era. The dynamic of APEC changed dramatically in 1993 when
President Clinton invited the leaders of member economies to Blake
Island, Washington, instituting what has become the annual Leaders'
Meetings. This annual gathering of APEC leaders has become an important
forum for solving regional economic and trade problems and for advancing
APEC's ambitious "Bogor goals" - free and open trade for developed
countries by 2010 and developing countries by 2020.
THIS YEAR, PRESIDENT CLINTON AND THE OTHER APEC LEADERS ARE WORKING TOENSURE THAT ALL APEC MEMBERS WILL BENEFIT FROM THE NEW ECONOMY. THEYARE FOCUSING ON THREE GOALS:
Ensuring that all citizens will benefit from the New Economy by
working to bridge the global digital divide, using information
technology to promote growth and create new jobs, and applying
information technology to business and government to improve efficiency
and to enhance the quality of life;
Continuing progress toward early launch of a new Round of WTO trade
talks and ensuring that regional free trade agreements strengthen the
multilateral trading system;
"Delivering to the community" in areas such as poverty reduction,
worker safety, child labor, environment, small business, social safety
nets, education, health and infectious disease.
PRESIDENT CLINTON & APEC LEADERS ARE WORKING TOWARD REACHING THESE GOALS
THROUGH DISCUSSIONS & ACTION IN A NUMBER OF KEY AREAS:
- Development of an "Action Agenda For The New Economy":
Maintaining Moratorium on Customs Duties On E-Commerce;
Promoting Liberal trade approach for E-Commerce;
Announcing 19 out of 21 APEC Economies Are Currently Completing
E-Commerce Readiness Assessment Programs;
Creating a Knowledge Network for Digital Opportunities;
Launching Electronic Individual Actions Plans On Free Trade &
Investment;
Adopting Standards To Promote Technology Trade; and
Launching Anti-Piracy Software Initiative.
Progress Toward Early Launch Of A New Trade Round And Efforts To
Strengthen Markets And Boost Growth In The APEC Economies:
Working Toward the Launch of a New Trade Round;
Announcing A Multilateral Aviation Open Skies Agreement;
Increasing Financial Training;
Launching Dialogue on Chemical Trade;
Promoting Energy Security; and
Intensifying Work on Reducing Non-Tariff Measures.
Delivering To The Community By Investing In People & Reducing Poverty:
Strengthening HIV/AIDS Prevention and Establishing A Disease
Surveillance Network;
Providing Basic Education; and
Preventing Abusive Child Labor.
DETAILS OF THE APEC AGENDA
PRESIDENT CLINTON & APEC LEADERS WILL DEVELOP AN "ACTION AGENDA FOR THE
NEW ECONOMY": The President and other APEC Leaders will advocate
pro-competitive and market-based policies; liberalization of
telecommunication and transportation services; efficient customs
procedures, shipping and transportation; strong intellectual property
protection; and initiatives to strengthen financial markets and make
financial services more efficient. They will work on specific actions
that will help all countries benefit from the New Economy, including:
Maintaining Moratorium on Customs Duties on E-Commerce: President
Clinton and APEC Leaders will agree to continue the moratorium on
customs duties on electronically delivered goods and services until at
least the next WTO Ministerial Meeting. By working together to keep new
duties out of cyberspace, the APEC economies can better promote
innovation and creation of new products and increase the volume of trade
online.
Promoting Liberal Trade Approach for Electronic Commerce: APEC will
agree to support the least restrictive approach to regulation of
e-commerce and to create a task force in the WTO to study how WTO rules
should apply to e-commerce.
Announcing 19 out of 21 APEC Economies Are Currently Completing
E-Commerce Readiness Assessment Programs: Following through on an
initiative begun by APEC leaders in 1999, APEC will announce 19 out of
21 APEC economies are now assessing their strengths and weaknesses in
e-commerce readiness, based on the APEC Readiness Assessment Guide,
which measures basic infrastructure and technology, access to basic
services, the current level and use of the internet, impact of
e-commerce on the economies, workforce availability, and the regulatory
environment. With this critical mass of assessment now in place, APEC
leads the world in analyzing what must be done to improve the
environment for e-commerce.
Establishing E-Commerce Readiness Evaluation Action Partnerships:
With U.S. leadership, APEC will announce the Readiness Evaluation Action
Partnerships (REAPs) initiative. Responding to weaknesses identified in
the readiness assessments, the REAPS include practical actions to remove
roadblocks to e-commerce by partnering APEC members and the business
community to undertake pilot projects to close the digital divide. To
kick off this initiative, the United States will work with Indonesian
Internet service providers and Vietnamese officials on Internet-related
projects.
Creating a Knowledge Network for Digital Opportunity: President
Clinton and the APEC Leaders will call for close cooperation with the
Global Business Dialogue on E-Commerce and other private sector entities
to join with government to help create digital bridges in the APEC
region. That cooperation will include establishing an interactive
web-site for private and public sector users in the APEC region to
directly contact private sector firms offering initiatives, training and
opportunities.
Launching Electronic Individual Action Plans On Free Trade &
Investment: APEC Leaders will launch an Internet-based database of
their Individual Action Plans (IAPs) toward free trade and investment in
the region by 2010/2020. These e-IAPs will permit easy access to steps
each economy is taking, provide a means to compare and assess each Plan,
and help identify areas where greater progress is necessary. This is a
major diagnostic tool for APEC economies to gauge their progress toward
the New Economy.
Adopting Standards To Promote Technology Trade: APEC will adopt "one
test, one standard" procedures for standard conformance for information
technology equipment. This streamlined procedure, which has strong
private sector support, will improve access to IT technology by lowering
the cost of computers and related products to citizens in the region.
The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates that the total cost
of certification is $1.8 billion per year just for U.S. firms doing
business in APEC - so the company savings from duplicative testing costs
in multiple economies can be significant.
Launching Anti-Piracy Software Initiative: APEC will agree to adopt
the U.S. proposal for an Anti-Piracy Software Initiative to allow only
legitimately licensed software in government offices. The project would
promote strong management practices for software and other IP assets in
government offices through a program of information exchange and
technical cooperation. Software piracy rates average nearly 50% in Asia
and over 90% in some countries.
PRESIDENT CLINTON & APEC LEADERS WILL WORK TO STRENGTHEN MARKETS AND
BOOST GROWTH IN THE APEC ECONOMIES & MAKE PROGRESS TOWARD EARLY LAUNCH
OF A NEW TRADE ROUND:
Working Toward the Launch of a New Trade Round: Leaders will call on
the WTO to launch the new Round and to make meaningful progress in the
agricultural and services negotiation now underway. The United States
strongly supports a launch as soon as possible next year.
Announcing A Multilateral Aviation Open Skies Agreement: Leaders from
Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States will
announce a multilateral aviation agreement, APEC's first multilateral
trade agreement. A seamless network of transportation services is
essential if the new efficiency of digital commerce is to be meaningful.
This agreement will create "open skies" for passenger and cargo service
among these APEC economies and is open to accession world-wide, making
it an example of "open regionalism."
Increasing Financial Training: APEC will expand training activities
to include not just bank supervisors and securities regulators, who are
already receiving training in international banking standards and
risk-based lending, but also life insurance and pension managers. At
the request of the United States, this year APEC will launch an
initiative to fight financial crimes that will include a core curriculum
for authorities and an APEC working group to survey regulatory
frameworks for fighting financial crimes. Domestic credit to the public
and private sectors in leading Asian economies (not including Japan) was
$2.4 trillion in 1998 and $2.6 trillion in 1999. Even a moderate
reduction of transactions costs from improved regulatory capacity is
likely to result in large efficiency gains in these markets, and real
systemic effects (such as more favorable regional credit ratings) from
collective improvement.
Launching Dialogue on Chemical Trade: Following on the success of the
Auto Sector dialogue in 1999, APEC has agreed to start a Chemicals
Dialogue to bring industry together with regulators in the second-most
traded sector in the APEC region. This initiative can support further
reduction in trade and regulatory barriers in an industry that is
essential to APEC manufacturing in both hi-tech and traditional
industries. APEC economies currently produce almost $1 trillion worth
of chemicals annually and account for 56% of global chemical production.
Promoting Energy Security: Expressing concern about oil price
volatility, leaders will call for balance in the oil markets and action
on measures to reduce vulnerability to oil price volatility which can
threaten even the most innovative industries.
DELIVERING TO THE COMMUNITY: PRESIDENT CLINTON AND APEC LEADERS WILLAGREE ON INVESTMENTS IN PEOPLE AND TO REDUCE POVERTY:
Preventing HIV/AIDS and Disease Surveillance Network: The President
and APEC Leaders will commit to fight HIV/AIDS and other infectious
diseases and call for the development of a strategy to address this
potential threat to the region. The United States is already committed
to fighting AIDS in the APEC region and will announce AIDS funding for
FY 2001.
Providing Basic Education: Leaders will support APEC activities on
improving teacher quality, use of technology to improve education,
school management, and student and teacher exchanges. The United States
is working with other APEC members to create:
a clearinghouse for student assessment at a U.S. educational
institution that will exchange information on best practices in
assessment, permit networking among researchers, developers, and private
companies, and assist emerging economies to obtain information on best
practices and possible resources for technical assistance, and
a web portal for improving teaching, a cooperative program between
the United States and Singapore that would allow one-stop shopping for
information about strategies to improve teaching in various APEC
economies.
Preventing Abusive Child Labor: With U.S. leadership, APEC is working
to eliminate the most abusive forms of child labor by strengthening
basic education and programs that keep children in school and out of the
work place.