U.S. Chamber of Commerce
 
International Division
1615 H Street, N.W.

To:              Asia Task Force Members
                   Asia-Pacific AmChams
From:          Myron Brilliant, Vice President, East Asia
                   Kathleen Connors, Director, Southeast Asia
Subject:        2005 APEC Busan Summit Debrief

Last week, the U.S. Chamber held a debriefing on the APEC Leaders’ meeting in Busan, Korea with U.S. Senior Official to APEC Michael Michalak and Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler.  Eric Altbach, Director, Asian Economic Affairs of the National Security Council also participated in the meeting to share the White House perspective.
Michalak opened the meeting by reaffirming the Administration’s support for APEC as the preeminent forum for Asia policy in the region.  He stressed that the U.S. government has already outlined an action-oriented APEC agenda for 2006, and will look to the private sector to continue to provide input and help shape the business agenda for the Vietnam year.  He also highlighted the Administration’s November 17 announcement of the ASEAN-U.S. Enhanced Partnership, outlining a strategy for a strengthened partnership in all areas, but most notably the agreement to negotiate a U.S.-ASEAN Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), generally a first step toward a Free Trade Agreement.
Wendy Cutler underscored the contribution of APEC to the Doha agenda this year, and stressed that the partnership within the APEC context between USTR, State, National Security Council and the private sector was highly effective.  She added that the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) will continue to be important during the Vietnam year with the 2006 deadline for completing the round.  APEC will continue to offer political support, technical assistance and capacity building efforts to support this goal.
Both agreed that the Korea year provided an impressive set of deliverables, and that the U.S. government wanted to begin to work with the private sector early on to develop a very active program of work for the Vietnam year.
Specific highlights of this year’s APEC accomplishments include:

• Support for the Doha Development Agenda.   Throughout the year, APEC officials put significant effort into coordinating with the APEC Caucus in Geneva.  The capstone of this effort was the strong, stand-alone statement of support from all APEC Leaders for a successful Hong Kong Ministerial Summit and timely conclusion to the Doha Round. (The statement can be found at http://www.apec.org/apec/leaders__declarations/2005/aelm_wto_dda.html .)
• Good work on regional and free trade agreement (RTA/FTA) standards.  With all of the various regional and bilateral free trade agreements currently under discussion in the region, APEC officials developed a framework of standards to help ensure consistency and high quality in such agreements.  This year, the focus was on trade facilitation chapters, as APEC has a good track record in this area.  Cutler noted that USTR would like private sector input as to which areas should be the next focus – services, investment, etc.
• Mid-Term Stock Take:  The outcome  of  the year-long review of progress toward the Bogor goals led to the Busan Business Agenda (BBA), an APEC –endorsed pro-business agenda that aims to focus on key areas of interest to the business community, covering issues such as trade facilitation, secure trade, corruption, and investment.  While this is a general framework, it is drafted to inspire an action agenda for the upcoming years.
• Avian Influenza (AI):  APEC economies unanimously agreed on a two part agenda as a framework for mitigating the spread of AI:
• Reaffirmation of the principles of cooperation among countries in areas of transparency, speed in reporting outbreaks, sharing sampling data and production and distribution of vaccines.
• Preparedness stocktaking:  coordination on efforts to identify gaps in national planning, private-public cooperation partnerships, and a regional table-top exercise to help develop an effective, coordinated response to mitigating the spread of AI.
• Intellectual Property: Wendy Cutler noted the inclusion of close coordination with the private sector on IPR efforts in the language drafted going into the Vietnam year.  A great deal of progress was made this year, with guidelines being issued in the areas of reduction of counterfeiting and piracy, on-line piracy, and preventing the sale of counterfeit goods on-line.  She mentioned that the Indonesian trade minister expressed how helpful these guidelines will be as Indonesia drafts new laws governing IPR.  This is exactly the outcome desired: namely, to inspire countries to implement or improve laws and regulations governing piracy and counterfeiting.
• Security:  Good cooperation allowed for progress on several security initiatives, including export control capacity building, development of a regional shared database to track lost and stolen passports, and strengthening of anti-money laundering cooperation.
  

Altbach again reaffirmed the importance that the Administration places on the APEC forum as an important vehicle to support U.S. regional goals.  Each year, progress is made on consolidating consensus on various issues, particularly security issues.  While APEC is not a security organization, it plays a key role in balancing security and business issues.  The work in best practices and building consensus is especially helpful, and APEC is the most effective organization in interfacing with the business community to best understand specific business challenges posed in the region.
Altbach mentioned that the President met with the ASEAN Seven Leaders, and stressed the importance of the relationship, noting the Enterprise for ASEAN Initiative and the desire to negotiate a regional Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).  APEC is an excellent model of how a regional forum should work, given the high level of transparency, openness and ease of providing input into the consultations.

Kathleen Connors
Director, Southeast Asia
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
1615 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20062-2000
Tel:  202.463.5874
Fax: 202.822.2491
www.uschamber.com/international