Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
1989, Canberra
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, short APEC ( Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation, also translated as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Asia-Pacific Economic Community and Asian - Pacific Economic Forum ) is an international organization, which has set itself the goal of the Pacific space to set up a free trade zone.
History
It was founded in 1989 in Canberra, on the initiative of Australia, Japan and the United States. At this time, twelve countries member of APEC. In its early stages, the composite was mainly a forum of informal discussions. With increasing cooperation joint summit conferences that take place every year in the meantime, created as a discussion and decision-making forum were. As a result, the APEC busy not only with issues of capital markets, the elimination of trade barriers and the cross-border economic cooperation, but also with economic cross-cutting issues such as future technologies, education, women, youth, ecological and sustainable economic development, reform of APEC, and the fight against of international terrorism. During the annual summit meetings there are often demonstrations, which are accompanied by violence.
In 1994, the goal of establishing a free trade area in the Asia-Pacific region was in Bogor, Indonesia, designed for the industrial nations by 2010 and for developing countries by 2020. To promote this objective, Member States drafted national action plans. A review of the results takes place in the form of annual progress reports on the summit. Since 2002, bilateral or multilateral agreements with one another are allowed. The agreement must conform to the rules of the WTO. APEC members have so far signed more than 40 such agreements. In the 21 APEC countries nearly half the world's population. The utility room provides more than half the world's economic output and is one of the fastest growing economic regions in the world.
Principle
APEC operates on the basis of non -binding agreements. All decisions of the Forum shall be taken by consensus. From 1997, no new members were added for ten years, only in 2007 were again permitted new applications are made. This period should serve the consolidation of cooperation. The budget of the APEC is relatively low. It amounts to almost 3.5 million dollars per year, which are applied by membership fees of the APEC countries. Japan alone invested more money (3-4 million U.S. dollars a year ) into a special fund liberalization of the organization. The meetings at the APEC level are always accompanied by guests and observers. These include representatives of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN), the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council ( PECC ), the Pacific Islands Forum ( PIF) and other stakeholders from the public and private sectors. APEC will also be used as a forum behind closed doors to discuss the North Korea problem.