Chile, China, Peru and the United States to Undertake Individual Action Plan Peer Review

The program for the next round of voluntary reviews of the steps taken by APEC Member Economies to reach the Bogor Goals of free trade and investment in the APEC Region has been approved by APEC Senior Officials.

These steps are laid out in the Individual Action Plans (IAPs) of APEC Member Economies which are intended to document each economy's progress towards the targets set in the Bogor Declaration of 1994.

After volunteering to undertake the peer review, Chile, China, Peru and the United States will carry out the following program:

Deadline	Requirement
November 2003	APEC Member Economies, fora and the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) will provide factual comments and questions regarding the 2003 IAPs of Chile, China, Peru and United States.
November 2003	The Review Team will compile a questionnaire and submit to the economy under review.
December 2003	December 2003 The economy under review will submit questionnaire responses.
March 2004	The Review Team will visit the economy under review to hold discussions.
April 2004	The Review Team will send the first draft Study Report to the economy under review for comments.
April 2004	The economy under review will return the first draft with comments.
May 2004	The Review Team will send the Study Report to all APEC Member Economies and ABAC.
Post May 2004	Peer Review Sessions will take place at scheduled Second Senior Officials Meetings during the 2004 APEC Year hosted by Chile.

Post May 2004 Peer Review Sessions will take place at scheduled Second Senior Officials Meetings during the 2004 APEC Year hosted by Chile.

The Bogor Declaration established the objectives of free trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region by 2010 for industrialized economies and by 2020 for developing economies.

The framework to reach these goals was then established in the 1995 Osaka Action Agenda (OAA).

The first part of the OAA outlines fourteen specific policy areas which are expected to be achieved through a combination of individual and collective actions by Member Economies.

IAPs contain a chapter for each of these specified policy areas and report on the steps each APEC Member Economy is taking to fulfill these objectives.

The IAP Peer Review for each economy is based on:

This information is supplemented by information gathered from the economy's earlier IAPs and from reports issued by the WTO, as well as studies published by academics on the economy under review.

Three APEC Member Economies had their Individual Action Plans reviewed during the August meeting of APEC Senior Officials. These were Hong Kong China, Korea and New Zealand.

At the first Meeting of APEC Senior Officials in Khon Kaen in February in 2003, the Individual Action Plans of three other economies, Australia, Canada and Thailand, were also reviewed.