After of a cluster of policy meetings held in Lima over the last two weeks, APEC Senior Officials met on 3-4 March to prioritize the agenda in preparation for the Leaders’ Meeting in November. Senior officials acknowledged that the region’s economy is less robust than it was 6 months ago due to commodity prices that remain under pressure. The region is vulnerable to externalities related the EU crisis and strains in some large emerging market economies that have led to a tightening in financial markets. Falling oil prices are hurting energy producers in several economies, but ultimately will assist energy importers. Despite these challenges, the region’s economy is forecast to grow, albeit at a slower rate than what was forecast last year.
Ambassador Luis Quesada called on the business community to provide a catalogue of the most onerous non-tariff barriers for food products in the Asia – Pacific. In this context, he asked ABAC (the APEC Business Advisory Council) for its input on how to address trade restrictions to unlock new growth potential for food producers – most of which are SMEs. Open well-functioning, transparent and competitive food markets are essential to regional food security, allowing food to move where it is needed and thereby ensuring access to a broad, predictable, continuous and sufficient supply of safe and nutritious food at affordable prices.
With a large number of high tech companies participating, the Ad Hoc Steering Group on the Internet Economy convened to discuss issues related to the Internet and digital economy and propose cooperative activities, projects and initiatives. In particular, they looked at an analysis of how services trade and investment is being impacted by new technologies.
