Global value chains to benefit APEC economies

Strengthening cooperation in global value chains (GVC) among Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies will lay the foundation for a high-standard free trade area in the region, a senior Chinese official said Friday. [Special coverage]

"The proposal of promoting GVC development and cooperation has been supported by all 21 APEC members, and will boost the sustainable growth of the region's economy," Shen Danyang, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, told a briefing on Friday.

China's reform and opening-up in the past three decades is a process of actively integrating into the GVC, which has led to increase in foreign trade, economic growth and job creation, he said.

APEC economies need to work together to create a favorable environment for advancing the GVC, and increase developing members' status in it, Shen said.

Currently, not all AEPC members have participated in the GVC, and those that have joined in do not benefit equally, Lin Guijun, vice president of the University of International Business and Economics, told the same briefing.

There is lots of work for APEC policymakers ahead, including further lowering tariffs for semi-finished and final products, simplifying rules of origin, and increasing trade facilitation, according to Lin.

"The proposal of GVC is also in accordance with China's industrial upgrading and structural reforms," Zhang Lijun, chairman of the China APEC Development Council, told the Global Times.

"In this process, China will gradually move to the high end of the industrial chain from a global manufacturing base," he said.

The evolution of GVC will also serve as the foundation for a high-standard free trade area, according to Shen. He said APEC members will strive to the realization of a Beijing road map on the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, and promote the interaction between regional trade pacts such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

With China's rise and growing influence, the Asia-Pacific region needs to establish a new order that fits the situation better. The new order needs China and the US to better integrate and share the responsibility for the region's common development, former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke said at the 2014 APEC China Day Summit Friday.

Shen also reiterated that the Chinese government holds an open attitude to the US-led TPP. "China is following the negotiation process of the TPP and evaluating its development situation," he said. "China also hopes the TPP could be open, inclusive and transparent."