Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an international economic organization. APEC was established for development of integration relations between economies of the Asia-Pacific region. Currently APEC incorporates economies of 21 countries (Australia, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong (special administrative region of the PRC), Canada, Chile, China (PRC), Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, USA)
APEC History
APEC was founded in Canberra (Australia) at the initiative of the Prime Minister of Australia in 1989. Originally, it included 12 countries - 6 developed countries of the Pacific region (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA, South Korea, Japan) and 6 developing countries of the Association of South-East Asia (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines).
By 1997, almost all major economies of the Pacific region joined APEC: new members were Hong Kong (1993), China (1993), Mexico (1994), Papua New Guinea (1994), Taiwan (1993), Chile (1995). In 1998, three new members — Russia, Vietnam and Peru associated APEC and 10-year moratorium on further expansion of the membership of the Forum was imposed. India and Mongolia submitted application for APEC membership.
Longtime development of more local economic alliances in the Asia-Pacific region in the 1960-1980s (ASEAN, Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference, South Pacific Forum, etc) preceded establishment of APEC. In 1965 Japanese economist K. Kojima proposed to create a Pacific free trade zone with participation of industrialized countries of this region. The interaction process was intensified in the 1980s, when Far East countries showed high and stable economic growth.
APEC Objectives
Objectives of the APEC Forum were formally defined by Seoul Declaration in 1991:
- maintaining the economic growth of the economies of the region;
- strengthening mutual trade;
- elimination of restrictions on movement of goods, services and capital between countries according to the norms of the GATT/WTO.
The 2nd APEC Regional Seminar of ANSSR Initiatives Against Anti-Competitive Practices for Ensuring Functioning of Open, Transparent and Competitive Markets was held in Kazan on October 13-15, 2015. This event was held in the frameworks of implementation of the Comprehensive Action Plan of the Russian Federation in the APEC Forum in 2013-2015