APEC Expert Interpretation: Asia Pacific Economic Integration Needs Action

At present, the US led span Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have absorbed 12 APEC members to create a completely open and deeply open new mode, and expect TPP to become a new standard for future regions and even the whole world. The regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP), driven by ASEAN, has attracted 16 members. 15 of them are APEC members. Negotiations are under way. The combination of these two large FTA negotiations has different influences, and if they go their own way, the goal of building an integrated, open and cooperative Asia Pacific market is bound to fail. In order to avoid market segmentation in the Asia Pacific region, the APEC leaders' informal meeting reached a consensus on promoting the integration of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Area (FTAAP) in 2010. In the past few years, every APEC informal meeting has stressed the need to promote the process of FTAAP, but no concrete action has been taken.

This year, China As a sponsor, he is determined to promote FTAAP as an important topic, build consensus and draw up a roadmap for achieving FTAAP, and begin to take concrete action measures for this purpose. Official support and participation research has been started, and the report has been submitted in a relatively short time. However, the process of launching FTAAP, even if it is preparing for the process, will be faced with difficulties. The main reasons are: the TPP led by the United States and the RCEP promoted by ASEAN are still in the negotiation process. Especially the United States also expects TPP to become the leading mode of Asia Pacific Regional integration in the future. Moreover, APEC is not a negotiation mechanism, but a forum, which can promote consensus and set goals, but negotiations need to rely on specialized mechanisms. There is only 5 years left to achieve the goal of Bogor. Even if negotiations are initiated as soon as possible, it will be almost impossible to achieve the goal in advance. Target of Bogor essence It is the realization of market opening in the Asia Pacific region. Therefore, the time to achieve this goal should also be adjusted.

The Asia Pacific region is China's main trading market, accounting for 60% of China's total import and export volume. It is also the main source of China's attracting overseas investment. From the perspective of future development, it is also China's most important investment market and industrial chain base. China, as the second largest economy in the world, naturally needs to be promoted. Asia Pacific Region It plays an important role in economic growth, achieving sustainable development, formulating new rules, strengthening economic and technological cooperation, and achieving common development. In recent years, China has put forward many positive initiatives under the framework of APEC, such as financial cooperation, new energy development and infrastructure network construction. This year it will also promote cooperation in the political field, such as the establishment of anti-corruption cooperation mechanism.

Of course, if we want to get things done well in APEC, we must first manage our affairs well. The great efforts and achievements made by the new leaders of China in deepening reform and opening up, speeding up the spanformation of production mode and promoting the rule of law in the construction of the country will surely leave a deep impression on the leaders and business circles of APEC.

It should be noted that it is very important to have a correct understanding of the positioning of APEC. APEC is an economic cooperation forum, not an organization with practical management functions. Its functions and functions are mainly embodied in three aspects: one is the gathering, that is to say, the more than 20 economies in the Asia Pacific region are concentrated together, with high-level meetings of senior officials, ministers and leaders, and extensive participation from enterprises and other sectors of the community. In particular, the gathering of leaders has strong political significance, which is conducive not only to the development of the region, but also to the peace of the region. Without APEC, such aggregation would not be possible. The second is to promote opening and oppose trade protectionism. It develops plans and targets through consensus building, and member economies take measures to implement them according to their commitments. This is called "coordinated unilateral action". Since the establishment of APEC, the openness of the Asia Pacific market has been greatly deepened, the tariff rate has been greatly reduced, and the facilitation of trade and investment has been greatly improved. This is an important source of economic vitality in the Asia Pacific region. The third is sharing, which is to promote knowledge, technology and information sharing through cooperation. APEC holds and holds hundreds of conferences and training courses every year. Through joint participation, it can exchange experiences and weave contacts and cooperation networks. Member economies, especially developing economies, can learn from this, reflecting the capacity building in economic and technological cooperation. The development of APEC is facing many challenges, and people are not satisfied with it. But it is still very attractive. So far, not only a member has decided to quit, but many other countries have applied for it.