APEC Leaders Endorse "Area-Specific" Transparency Standards
Transparency is an essential principle in the APEC process for both promoting economic stability and in meeting APEC's free trade and investment goals.
Today, Leaders endorsed the package of "area-specific" transparency standards for inclusion in their original "2002 Statement to Implement APEC Transparency Standards."
The transparency standards relate specifically to eight areas:
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Services
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Investment
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Competition Law and Policy and Regulatory Reform
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Standards and Conformance
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Intellectual Property
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Custom procedures
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Market Access
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Business Mobility
In their 18 October Statement, APEC Ministers directed officials to complete their work on area-specific standards on government procurement by the Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade in June 2004.
The first "Leaders' Statement to Implement APEC Transparency Standards" was issued at the 2002 Leaders' Meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico.
The Ministers also requested Senior Officials further refine the template developed for reporting on how economies implement the General
Transparency Standards to be used from 2004.
Economies are expected to have fully implemented the Leaders' Transparency Standards by the January 2005 deadline.
The APEC"Leaders' Statement to Implement APEC Transparency Standards" is available is available on the APEC website.