With about 150 free trade pacts around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region, the multilateral economic framework hopes these agreements could head toward the same direction so as to help revitalize trade here, according to senior APEC official and expert. [Special coverage]
Alan Bollard, executive director of the APEC Secretariat, told a press briefing here on Monday that the free trade agreements situation in the region is "very complicated"and the APEC is working on a strategic study on a wider free trade area in the region -- the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) -- so as to ensure that there is no overlap and conflicts arise out of the copious pacts.
The APEC leaders agreed to launch a collective strategic study on the FTAAP last year in Beijing, China, and to report the result by the end of 2016. For his part, Bollard called the FTAAP as the "APEC's big goal out into future."
Meanwhile, as the theme of this year's APEC meeting is "building inclusive economies,"Bollard, who highlighted the need to better integrate regional small and medium enterprises, said that goods must move across the borders especially for small businesses.
To achieve the goal, the APEC on Sunday launched an online database especially for micro, small and medium enterprises in its member economies to better access cross-border trade in the region.
The database, APEC Trade Repository will provide information including most-favored-nation tariff rates, preferential tariff rates, rules of origin on existing free trade agreements, best practices in trade facilitation, domestic trade and customs laws and regulation and procedures and documentary requirements for imports and exports to the enterprises.
Trade among APEC member economies has contracted in 2015 and is expected to recover in 2016, predicted Denis Hew, APEC Secretariat's director of policy support, adding the foreseen recovery would be due to external demand and imports, particularly of devleoping countries among the APEC economies.
He also noted that economic situation in bigger APEC players such as the United States and China would also affect the trend, as well as a robust private consumption.
