APEC Conference Starts Asia Pacific Free Trade Area Process, Asia Pacific Relations Enter 3 Era

"We have decided to start the Asia Pacific Free Trade Area."

On November 11th, Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a press conference at the informal meeting of leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 2014.

He said that the APEC approval of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Area road map was approved. This is a historic step towards the realization of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Area. It marks the official start of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Area process and reflects the confidence and determination of APEC members to promote regional economic integration.

"This is a decision in the annals of history, which will lift the economic integration of the Asia Pacific region to a new higher level, and will also benefit the economies of different stages of development across the Pacific, and inject new vitality into the growth of the Asia Pacific economy and the development of its members."

Promoting the construction of the Asia Pacific free trade area is an important topic of this year's APEC conference.

"In general, all the expected accomplishments have been achieved at a high level."

Liu Chenyang, director of APEC research center of Nankai University, told reporters on twenty-first Century economic report.

At the informal meeting of APEC leaders held on 11, two achievements were made: the Beijing platform: building the Asia Pacific APEC leaders Declaration on integration, innovation and interconnection, and building a partnership for the future Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation APEC 25th anniversary statement, further clarifying the direction, goals and measures for the economic cooperation in the Asia Pacific region.

Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone Roadmap

Promoting regional economic integration is one of the three topics of this year's informal meeting of APEC leaders.

"We all agree that regional economic integration is the driving force for the long term strong growth in the Asia Pacific region.

APEC should continue to play a leading and coordinating role in promoting regional economic integration, planning new vision for economic integration in the Asia Pacific region, and jointly building an open, inclusive, balanced and inclusive regional economic cooperation framework.

Xi Jinping said in his speech.

In 2006, the Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone was first put forward at the informal meeting of APEC leaders.

In 2010, the informal meeting of APEC leaders agreed to promote several FTA negotiations in the region, such as the p Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), "10+6" and "10+3" as possible paths to achieve the Asia Pacific Free Trade Area.

Andrew Rob, Minister of trade and investment in Australia (Andrew Robb), said in an interview that trade arrangements involving bilateral and several countries would be easier than crossing the Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone step by step.

He said Australia is very active in supporting the goal of establishing the Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone.

Although the idea of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone has been put forward for a long time, it has failed to start a substantive process in the past few years.

"China has put forward this initiative on the occasion of the APEC 25th anniversary establishment. We are pleased to see that through the joint efforts of one year, the parties finally reached a consensus on the" APEC to promote the implementation of the Beijing road map of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone ", and decided to start the joint strategy study of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone, establish the APEC free trade area information exchange mechanism, carry out the capacity building of the FTA negotiations for many years, and promote cooperation in specific areas such as services, investment, rules of origin, these are the most basic elements of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Area.

Gao Hucheng, Minister of Commerce of China, attended the press conference of APEC foreign ministers and trade ministers.

The consensus reached at the ministerial meeting was also approved by the informal meeting of APEC leaders.

"The proposed road map will comprehensively promote the next stage of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Area."

Liu Chenyang said.

According to the consensus reached by all parties, the Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone strategy research will take two years to start.

The US trade representative Mike Frohman (Michael Froman) said in an interview that strategic research will involve APEC related members, Secretariat, Business Council and other APEC related parties.

The United States as the co chairman of the "Friends of the president" in the Asia Pacific free trade area looks forward to cooperating with China and other members on this research.

Liu Chenyang analyzed that the main elements of building the Asia Pacific free trade area include starting strategic research, promoting capacity building, and strengthening the existing exchange mechanism for negotiations on free trade agreements.

"The core discussion is to start strategic research."

In the final consensus, the "feasibility study" description of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone has become a "strategic research".

The feasibility study is usually done before the start of a negotiation, and the Asia Pacific free trade area is not about starting new negotiations, but will be based on negotiations that are already under way, he explains.

"Whatever the name is, it will be an official study on the Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone."

Liu Chenyang said.

Previously, the study of the Asia Pacific free trade area was dominated by business and academic circles.

Strategic research will further study the future path, cooperation framework, liberalization level and impact on members of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Area, and draw a clear conclusion, which will be the basis for negotiations.

"This is a substantive first step towards the Asia Pacific Free Trade Area."

Liu Chenyang said.

APEC interconnection blueprint

This year's APEC informal meeting also approved the APEC blueprint for interconnection. It is determined to achieve the vision of strengthening hardware, software and personnel exchanges and interconnection by 2025, and complete the specific targets set jointly.

"This is a landmark achievement."

Say.

Asia Pacific interconnection was included in the main topic at last year's APEC informal leadership meeting in Bali Island, Indonesia.

This year's APEC conference adopted the two achievements document of the APEC interconnection framework and the APEC infrastructure development and investment multi-year plan.

Interconnection issues continue to be promoted at this year's APEC informal leadership meeting.

One of the main topics of this year's meeting is to enhance the overall infrastructure and interconnection.

The blueprint for APEC interconnection adopted this year is the further expansion and deepening of the two outcome documents of last year's Indonesia meeting.

"Last year's two documents were more advocacy and less planning.

The blueprint passed this year is longer, and the cooperation has already been combed. It will provide direction and guidance for the next three stages of interoperability between physics, personnel and system. APEC can conduct pragmatic cooperation under this guidance.

Liu Chenyang said.

Xi Jinping said at the closing ceremony of the informal meeting of APEC leaders: "we decided to expand pragmatic cooperation in infrastructure investment and financing, promote public-private partnership mode, and help the region to solve the bottleneck of interconnection and construction funding."

According to the development bank data, there is still a gap of $8 trillion in infrastructure construction in Asia over the past 2011-2020 years.

In October this year, the APEC finance ministers' meeting adopted the roadmap for implementing the PPP project for the successful development of the APEC area.

The roadmap provides suggestions and specifications for the characteristics of PPP (public-private partnerships), the environment that the government needs to provide, how to make infrastructure investment plans, how to select projects, standardize procurement procedures, and how to allocate risks.

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Specific measures have been taken to carry out interconnection in the region. Public private partnerships, financing and other issues have been fully discussed.

Asian infrastructure investment banks outside the APEC framework are echoing and docking.

Liu Chenyang said.

In October 24th, the finance ministers and authorized representatives of 21 interested founding member countries including China, India and Singapore signed a memorandum in Beijing and jointly decided to set up an infrastructure investment bank in Asia.

The legal capital of Asia Investment Bank is US $100 billion, and the economic weight measured by member gross domestic product will be the basis for the distribution of shares in various countries.