APEC 2006

In November 2006, APEC's 21 members will meet in Ha Noi, Vietnam for the annual APEC Summit. As APEC 2006 host, Vietnam has selected the following theme to guide discussions throughout the year: "Towards a Dynamic Community for Sustainable Development and Prosperity."

Canada's APEC priorities for 2006 are:

1. To advance key Canadian trade policy interests including progress in the Doha Round, our regional trade policy objectives, and making the Asia-Pacific region more accessible to Canadian businesses through trade facilitation, transparency and anti-corruption.
2. To enhance security in the Asia-Pacific region by expanding adherence to counter-terrorism agreements, capacity building, enhancing health security and infectious diseases strategies, and promoting human security, including emergency preparedness.
3. To promote private sector development in Asia-Pacific by supporting policy measures that benefit small, medium and micro-enterprises, strengthening legal infrastructure in developing economies, and narrowing the digital divide.

In anticipation of the 2006 Summit, Canada was proud to host with New Zealand an APEC Symposium on Private Sector Development which was held in Montreal, Canada, in May 2006.

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1. Economy and trade

The World Trade Organization

Because of the diversity and economic importance of its membership, APEC is a valuable forum for Canada to promote its trade agenda, including our overriding trade policy priority of successfully concluding the Doha Round of WTO negotiations.

Canada is one of the most open economies in the world and the world's fifth largest exporter and importer. Trade is the very essence of Canada's economy and directly influences national prosperity. Thus, Canadian exports of goods and services represent 38% of the gross domestic product. However, this prosperity depends on the existence of an international regulatory framework that facilitates access to expanding world markets and that can adapt to changes in technology, trade practices and social systems. An international trade system based on clear and equitable rules allows innovative Canadian companies to not only create jobs but also to offer consumers competitive prices.

The World Trade Organization is the cornerstone of Canada's trade policy and the foundation for Canada's relations with its trading partners, including emerging markets and developing countries. The WTO allows Canada to promote its trade interests in other countries without compromising other national objectives. Canada retains the right to regulate in the public interest, particularly in areas such as public health and security, education, social services and the environment. Canada is also committed to protecting the right of all countries to promote and preserve their cultural diversity.

This APEC meeting will be an opportunity for Canada, in collaboration with other APEC members, to provide crucial political support to move WTO negotiations forward. Canada remains determined to implement several Doha commitments. These include the establishment of conditions (e.g. numbers, formulas and specific commitments) for agriculture and access to markets for non-agricultural products; the establishment of an intensified employment program in the services area including new negotiation approaches; substantial progress in areas such as rules, trade facilitation and environmental products; and progress on issues of interest to developing countries in order to provide a base for concluding the Doha Round by the end of 2006.

Support of WTO negotiations is a fundamental purpose of APEC. This goal is also shared by Canada, which actively funds trade policy capacity-building activities in the Asia-Pacific region. Since 1996, Canada has spent almost $60 million on strengthening the ability of APEC members (mainly China, Russia and Southeast Asian countries) to comply with WTO obligations or WTO accession requirements and to strengthen their capacity to take advantage of their WTO rights. Along with Japan, Canada co-chairs APEC's WTO Capacity Building Group, through which the organization coordinates capacity building projects. Canada sponsored a training course on multi-stakeholder trade policy consultations which took place in March 2006 in Vietnam.

Since 2001, Canada has sponsored trade policy capacity-building workshops on issues ranging from customs valuation to financial services, including such topics as standards harmonization and test procedures for the energy trade. In May 2005, Canada held a workshop on trade facilitation capacity-building best practices to improve the quality of technical assistance in this area. A workshop on multistakeholder consultations was held in March 2006.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) continues to implement Canada's APEC Economic Integration Program, which helps increase the trade policy capabilities of four APEC members (Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) and two non-member economies (Cambodia and Laos). It focuses on agriculture, services and trade facilitation.

Canada fully supports the accession of Russia and Vietnam to the WTO as soon as possible. Accession will help advance and consolidate economic reforms in these countries, and help boost bilateral commercial relations.

Facilitating trade and investment

Canada also uses APEC to promote the interests of Canadian companies that are active in the Asia-Pacific region. Trade facilitation measures aimed at simplifying import/export procedures, transparency measures to make rules, regulations and decision-making processes clearer, and anti-corruption initiatives all help Canadian exporters and investors active in the region. This year marks the conclusion of APEC's 2002 Trade Facilitation Action Plan, which will have lowered transaction costs in the region by at least 5% over five years. Canada was a leading force in the implementation of this Action Plan and will push for APEC to continue its trade facilitation progress once the Action Plan is completed.

In February 2006, Canada organized an APEC workshop on anti-corruption measures for the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In addition to improving conditions for domestic firms in developing economies, anti-corruption efforts also improve the business environment faced by Canadian companies active in Asia-Pacific.

2. Security

Canada supports extending APEC's work program on security-related issues and will speak on subjects of particular interest, such as counterterrorism, health security and emergency preparedness.

Counterterrorism

Canada understands that its domestic security is inextricably linked to that of the rest of the world, and that we must use all tools at our disposal to improve security. Canada believes that terrorism is a long-term global challenge that demands a consistent and coordinated international response based upon agreed common goals, norms, standards, values and institutions. To this end, Canada works in various international, regional, and functional fora such as the United Nations, G8, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), to develop legal instruments, best practices and international standards to combat terrorism.

Canada thus identified opportunities for APEC economies to share information and develop agreed guidelines on the steps they are taking to achieve the goals set under the Secure Trade in the APEC Region (STAR) initiative. This includes:

• an ongoing commitment to updating anti-terrorism action plans
• finalizing work through an in-depth analysis of those plans to determine regional needs and themes for possible counter-terrorism capacity building initiatives
• introducing new and useful initiatives into the APEC system

The Canadian-led effort to keep the Counter-Terrorism Action Plans up to date will be crucial for the adoption and implementation by all APEC members of the APEC Guidelines on Controls and Security of Man-Portable Air Defence Systems and the Key Elements for Effective Export Control Systems, which were approved at the 2004 Summit in Chile, as well as to fulfil their international human rights obligations, as agreed during the 2005 Busan Summit.

Canada will use its new Counter-Terrorism Capacity Building program to provide training, funding, equipment, technical and legal assistance to developing economies to enable them to prevent and respond to terrorist activity in a manner consistent with international counter-terrorism and human rights norms, standards and obligations. To help strengthen counter-terrorism capacities in APEC, Canada, in collaboration with China, held a workshop on airport security in Beijing in February 2005, and will hold other workshops in the coming months such as strengthening port security, and enhancing the security of rail and mass transit.

Health security

In the area of health security, the APEC Health Task Force addresses health-related threats to economies' trade and security with a focus on emerging infectious diseases. Canada is the chair of the APEC Health Task Force for 2006-2007.

At the 2005 Busan Summit, Leaders endorsed an APEC initiative on Preparing for and Mitigating an Influenza Pandemic. The Initiative identifies eleven areas for collective work by APEC economies to complement and support the work of international organizations, such as the World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, and World Organization for Animal Health. The work of the Health Task Force will focus on implementing aspects of the Leaders' initiative and building regional and members' capacity to strengthen pandemic influenza preparedness. Canada will be working closely with a number of APEC economies on initiatives to build the region's capacity to prepare, prevent, and respond to an influenza pandemic. For example, Canada organized a pandemic preparedness risk communications workshop in Vietnam in early May.

The Health Task Force will pursue activities to strengthen APEC members' ability to respond to HIV/AIDS. This is in response to the 2004 APEC initiative on Fighting Against AIDS in APEC where Leaders pledged their political commitment to work at the global and regional levels to combat the further spread of the AIDS pandemic. In December 2005, Canada organized a workshop on HIV/AIDS and Migrant/Mobile Workers in the Philippines. As a follow-up to this workshop and another APEC HIV/AIDS initiative organized by Thailand, Canada will be working with the APEC Business Advisory Council and other stakeholders to develop guidelines for creating an enabling environment for employers to implement effective workplace practices for people living with HIV/AIDS.

3. Private sector development

At the 2005 APEC Leader's Meeting in Busan, South Korea, Canada and New Zealand obtained the agreement of APEC Leaders to develop a private sector development agenda within APEC in order to improve the business environment in the region.

The World Bank, the UN Development Program and CIDA have all recognized the role of the private sector as an engine of economic growth and poverty alleviation, and have sought to strengthen the private sector in developing economies by:

• creating an enabling environment (including through "smarter" regulation)
• promoting entrepreneurship
• supporting connection to markets

By alleviating poverty, private sector development contributes not only to development but also to political and economic stability, with positive long-term implications for Canadian security and prosperity.

Canada is working to focus APEC's trade facilitation efforts on the needs of SMEs and MEs as they are most affected by high transaction costs and administrative red tape. Other measures include transparency and WTO capacity-building initiatives. One of the greatest obstacles to exporting faced is a lack of information on prices, customs and export procedures as well as contacts in other markets. Information technologies can provide access to such information but these enterprises often cannot afford it or it is not available in rural or isolated areas.

Canada is also working to increase high-level political commitment and awareness regarding private sector development among APEC region governments.

To promote private sector development within APEC, Canada is currently working on the following projects:

• Workshop to raise awareness of the impact of corruption on small businesses, and generate a set of recommendations for APEC work in this area
• Training course to emphasize the importance of consulting with non-traditional stakeholders such as associations of small businesses and women entrepreneurs
• Research project to document public and private sector best practices in e-trade finance -- a key tool for helping small businesses participate in international markets
• Workshops on broadband for remote and indigenous communities, and e-inclusion for people with disabilities, to promote connection to markets, a core mechanism for private sector development
• Following up on the 2004 Canadian APEC project "Supporting Potential Women Exporters" to help women-owned businesses and SMEs participate in international trade
• Workshops on incorporation and bankruptcy laws to strengthen APEC members' legal infrastructures