    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [November 25, 1997]
    [Pages 1657-1661]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1657]]

    APEC Economic Leaders' Declaration: Connecting the APEC Community
    November 25, 1997

        1. We, APEC's Economic Leaders, met today in Vancouver, Canada, to
    reaffirm our commitment to work together to meet the challenge of
    sustaining regional prosperity and stability. Certain of the dynamism
    and resilience of the region, we underline our resolve to achieve
    sustainable growth and equitable development and to unlock the full
    potential of the people who live here. We agree that the prospects for
    economic growth in the region are strong, and that Asia-Pacific will
    continue to play a leading role in the global economy. The goals we have
    set, including the achievement of free and open trade and investment in
    the region by the dates set out in the Bogor Declaration, are ambitious
    and unequivocal.
        2. We take note of the rapid expansion of APEC's activities in
    recent years, and the increasing leadership role it plays in global
    economic affairs. Flowing from commitments embodied in the Osaka Action
    Agenda and the Manila Action Plan for APEC, we welcome the designation
    of 1997 as APEC's Year of Action. We have reflected on the concrete
    results that APEC cooperation has generated throughout the year, and set
    out a vision of how we may build upon these achievements in the years
    ahead. As the year draws to a close, we note with satisfaction that we
    have met and surpassed all the tasks we set for ourselves at our last
    meeting in Subic.
        3. APEC--Addressing shared challenges: We have had a thorough
    discussion of recent financial developments in the region. Our economies
    and the international community as a whole have a strong interest in
    seeing a quick and enduring restoration of financial stability and
    healthy and sustainable growth. These events reflect new challenges in
    the international financial system that require new responses. The
    global dimensions of these problems suggest the need for a global
    response, with regional initiatives to complement and support these
    efforts. We are resolved to work together to address these shared
    challenges.
        There is no doubt that the fundamentals for long-term growth and
    prospects for the region are exceptionally strong. We remain convinced
    that open markets bring significant benefits and we will continue to
    pursue trade and investment liberalization that fosters further growth.
    Prudent and transparent policies, particularly sound macroeconomic and
    structural policies, human resource development strategies, and
    effective financial sector regulation are key to restoring financial
    stability and realizing this growth potential.
        But we need to go further. We believe it is critically important
    that we move quickly to enhance the capacity of the international system
    to prevent or, if necessary, to respond to financial crises of this
    kind. On a global level, the role of the IMF remains central. Therefore,
    we welcome and strongly endorse the framework agreed to in Manila as a
    constructive step to enhance cooperation to promote financial stability:
    enhanced regional surveillance; intensified economic and technical
    cooperation to improve domestic financial systems and regulatory
    capacities; adoption of new IMF mechanisms on appropriate terms in
    support of strong adjustment programs; and a cooperative financing
    arrangement to supplement, when necessary, IMF resources. We urge rapid
    implementation of the Manila Framework. We also look forward to the
    conclusions of the IMF study already underway on the role of market
    participants in the recent crises.
        We recognize that as the region's most comprehensive economic forum,
    APEC is particularly well suited to play a pivotal role in fostering the
    kind of dialogue and cooperation on a range of policies and develop
    initiatives to support and supplement these efforts. We ask our Finance
    Ministers, working closely with their Central Bank colleagues, to
    accelerate their work launched in Cebu in April on the collaborative
    initiatives to promote the development of our financial and capital
    markets, and to support freer and stable capital flows in the region.
    APEC can play a particularly valuable role in exploring ways, in
    cooperation with the World Bank, the IMF, and the Asian Development
    Bank, of intensifying its economic and technical

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    cooperation, giving priority to upgrading financial systems, enhancing
    cooperation among market regulators and supervisors and other measures
    to help improve the integrity and functioning of financial markets. A
    good example of private-public partnership in these areas is the
    recently-announced Toronto Centre for Executive Development of Financial
    Sector Supervisors.
        We look to our Finance Ministers to report on progress on all of
    these initiatives early in the new year and to concrete outcomes at
    their next meeting.
        4. APEC must play an increasing role in addressing such challenges.
    We are resolved to work together to achieve concrete results through
    dialogue and problem-solving. Recognizing the diverse interests and
    circumstances of its membership, APEC has given rise to entirely new
    approaches to international economic cooperation. Based on three
    mutually supportive pillars--trade and investment liberalization,
    business facilitation, and economic and technical cooperation--the APEC
    approach addresses regional challenges and opportunities in an
    integrated fashion so that all members develop the capacity to
    participate fully in and benefit from this cooperation. By connecting
    the community APEC has helped us to build relationships and share
    knowledge to improve the well-being of our citizens. These partnerships
    enhance our prosperity and progress, enrich our lives and foster the
    spirit of the APEC community.

    A Year of Action--Key Results

        5. We welcome the concrete results achieved this year in
    implementing the trade and investment liberalization commitments we set
    out at Subic Bay. We recognize efforts made by members to improve the
    commitments in their Individual Action Plans. APEC's collective
    achievement in enhancing the comparability and transparency of these
    plans is important in ensuring that our undertakings are well understood
    in the marketplace. The views of the private sector are critical to
    ensuring that APEC's efforts remain focused and on target. In this
    regard, we welcome the review of the Manila Action Plan for APEC which
    was carried out by the APEC Business Advisory Council, and instruct our
    ministers to take ABAC's views into consideration in the preparation of
    future plans. As Individual Action Plans remain the core mechanism for
    APEC's trade and investment liberalization activity, we reaffirm our
    commitment to their annual improvement.
        6. APEC's liberalization proceeds on a voluntary basis, propelled by
    commitments taken at the highest level. In this regard, we welcome the
    action taken to accelerate by two years the time table for the
    identification of sectors for early voluntary liberalization, a decision
    that underlines our determination to advance the pace of liberalization
    in the region and globally. We endorse the agreement of our Ministers
    that action should be taken with respect to early voluntary
    liberalization in 15 sectors, with nine to be advanced throughout 1998
    with a view to implementation beginning in 1999. We find this package to
    be mutually beneficial and to represent a balance of interests. We
    instruct Ministers responsible for trade to finalize detailed targets
    and timelines by their next meeting in June 1998. To sustain this
    momentum, we further instruct that the additional sectors nominated by
    members this year to be brought forward for consideration of additional
    action next year. We underline our commitment to comprehensive
    liberalization, as stated in the Osaka Action Agenda.
        7. Among multilateral and regional fora, APEC is a pioneer in the
    area of trade and investment facilitation. Our business community tells
    us that this is the area of APEC activity of most immediate relevance to
    them. Lowering costs, eliminating red-tape and delay, promoting
    regulatory reform, developing mutual recognition arrangements on
    standards and conformance, and increasing predictability are clear
    benefits, especially to operators of small and medium-sized enterprises.
    The Blueprint for APEC Customs Modernization, which puts forward a
    comprehensive program to harmonize and simplify customs clearances by
    the year 2000, provides a model. We urge the acceleration of trade and
    investment facilitation through APEC's Collective Action Plans and
    direct Ministers to use APEC's economic and technical cooperation
    activities to build capacity, adapt procedures and incorporate new
    technologies.
        8. On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the GATT we reflected on
    the rich legacy it has conferred through the encouragement of open trade
    regimes. We reaffirm the primacy of the open, rules-based multilateral
    trading system under the WTO and reiterate our commitment to APEC's
    activity proceeding on the basis of

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    open regionalism. We invite trading partners outside APEC to follow
    suit.
        Full and active participation in and support of the WTO by all APEC
    economies is key to our ability to continue to strengthen the global
    trading system. We encourage the acceleration of substantive
    negotiations on protocol issues and market access with a view to
    achieving universality of WTO membership. We reaffirm our undertaking to
    implement fully all existing WTO commitments and the built-in agenda of
    the WTO according to agreed timetables. We also challenge the WTO to
    build on APEC's efforts towards further broadbased multilateral
    liberalization. We note with pleasure the leadership that APEC has
    demonstrated in advancing in the WTO the conclusion of Agreements on
    Information Technology and Basic Telecommunications. We undertake to
    work in a determined fashion to achieve a successful conclusion to WTO
    negotiations on financial services by the agreed deadline of December
    12, 1997. As agreed by our finance and trade Ministers, a successful
    conclusion would include an MFN agreement based on significantly
    improved commitments. This result will enhance competition within our
    financial systems, foster development of regional capital markets,
    promote financial integration, improve the regional capacity to
    intermediate savings and strengthen our economies' resilience in the
    face of external shocks.
        9. We are pleased with the progress that has been made in
    implementing the 1996 Framework for Strengthening Economic Cooperation
    and Development in APEC, and call on Ministers and officials to focus on
    addressing the key challenges identified therein. We direct Ministers to
    give all elements of the Framework equal weight and attention, and to be
    mindful of its indivisibility as an integrated set of objectives
    requiring coordination and communication across the APEC agenda. We
    applaud the effort in 1997 to apply this Framework approach to APEC's
    work on two key challenges in the region--infrastructure and sustainable
    development. We direct Ministers to focus further efforts on capacity-
    building in 1998 through work on developing human resources and
    harnessing technologies of the future to enable all members of the APEC
    community to benefit more fully from trade liberalization.
        10. Meetings of Ministers responsible for finance and trade provided
    early impetus for APEC's work in 1997. We commend their activities as a
    direct contribution to our goal for sustainable growth and equitable
    development. We are also gratified by the substantial contributions that
    Ministers responsible for environment, transportation, energy, small and
    medium-sized enterprises, and human resource development have made in
    1997 to APEC's work. We welcome the progress of APEC fora in involving
    business, academics and other experts, women and youth in 1997
    activities, and encourage them to continue these efforts.
        11. APEC members share a belief in the contribution of free markets
    to achieving our growth and employment objectives. While they have a
    clear role in managing the impacts of economic transition, governments
    alone cannot solve the complex questions posed by our interconnected
    world. We are pleased to note a leap in business involvement in all
    levels of APEC activity this year. As Leaders, we have profited from our
    dialogue with the APEC Business Advisory Council. We commend their
    initiative in increasing their exchanges with Ministers and Senior
    Officials. We will reflect on recommendations set out in ABAC's 1997
    Call to Action. We also welcome ABAC's intention to establish a
    Partnership for Equitable Growth, and express appreciation for
    recommendations on diverse and important issues such as standards,
    business mobility and capital market development. We stress the need for
    APEC to broaden its outreach to a wider segment of the business
    community.
        Noteworthy in 1997 has been the wealth of APEC activities and
    initiatives in support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
    Although ours is a region of traders, many SMEs encounter obstacles to
    their full participation. We stress the importance of strengthening our
    SME sectors, to allow them to take advantage of linkages into regional
    trade and investment opportunities by promoting a business environment
    that stimulates creation of new enterprises. We commend the fact that
    many specialized APEC fora have developed programs to address the needs
    of SMEs. We take note of the priorities and approaches set out in APEC's
    1997 Framework for SMEs, and instruct Ministers to ensure they are
    applied.

    A Vision for the 21st Century

        12. Connecting APEC's instruments--Intense growth in the economies
    of Asia-Pacific over

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    the past decade has had far reaching impacts on our societies. Growth
    and employment, as well as improved incomes and quality of life, are
    welcome benefits. In all of our societies these positive outcomes have
    been accompanied by structural and environmental pressures.
    Globalization has emerged as a reality. Rapid urbanization and advances
    in information technology are transforming our cityscapes, as well as
    the way in which we interact. Our ability to adapt to new developments
    will determine our success in achieving sustainable and equitable
    development among and within societies in the region. We applaud the
    efforts made this year to integrate APEC's instruments--liberalization,
    facilitation and economic and technical cooperation--in addressing
    emerging challenges.
        13. Connecting with our constituents: We stress our common belief
    that ongoing and ambitious trade and investment liberalization remains
    indispensable to the health of our economies. To underpin our efforts,
    support among the people of the region for continuing trade and
    investment liberalization is essential. We welcome the decision by
    Ministers to develop an APEC-wide work program to assess the full
    impacts of trade liberalization, including its positive effects on
    growth and employment, and to assist members in managing associated
    adjustments.
        14. Connecting our economies: Our discussions today have focussed on
    regional infrastructure requirements in support of economic and social
    development. We endorse the work that has been carried out this year on
    infrastructure applications to make city life more sustainable, in
    particular the Sustainable Cities Program of Action. The rapid growth of
    urban centres poses daunting challenges such as bottlenecks, supply
    constraints, as well as health and environmental concerns. Governments
    must strive to ensure adequate access to infrastructure for people in
    all walks of life, urban or rural. Capacity building through economic
    and technical cooperation is essential to ensure the ability of all
    economies to address these critical challenges.
        Infrastructure is inextricably linked to the questions of financial
    stability that we have addressed. In addressing regional infrastructure
    decisions, governments and business must work together to ensure that
    long-term financial sustainability is adequately considered. Cooperation
    with business and international financial institutions and development
    banks can be critical to achieving optimal project planning. We endorse
    the attached Vancouver Framework for Enhanced Public-Private
    Partnerships for Infrastructure Development. We also are pleased by the
    agreement to enhance cooperation among Export Credit Agencies and Export
    Financing Institutions in support of regional infrastructure
    development, as well as agreement to undertake a feasibility study on a
    Network of Infrastructure Facilitation Centres to encourage information
    sharing and transparency. Recognizing the importance of
    telecommunications and information technology for building an Asia-
    Pacific information society, we agree that the Asia-Pacific Information
    Infrastructure is an essential basis for ensuring the competitiveness of
    the region in the 21st Century.
        15. Connecting electronically: We agree that electronic commerce is
    one of the most important technological breakthroughs of this decade. We
    direct Ministers to undertake a work program on electronic commerce in
    the region, taking into account relevant activities of other
    international fora, and to report to us in Kuala Lumpur. This initiative
    should recognize the leading role of the business sector and promote a
    predictable and consistent legal and regulatory environment that enables
    all APEC economies to reap the benefits of electronic commerce.
        16. Connecting science and technology: In view of the growing role
    of science and technology in promoting economic growth and its close
    linkages to trade and investment flows, we direct Ministers to formulate
    an APEC Agenda for Science and Technology Industry Cooperation into the
    21st Century, and present it to us in Kuala Lumpur. We also welcome
    other regional networks to strengthen science and technology linkages,
    including the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU).
        17. Connecting the issues: Achieving sustainable development remains
    at the heart of APEC's mandate. Equity, poverty alleviation and quality
    of life are central considerations, and must be addressed as an integral
    part of sustainable development. We have made a commitment to advance
    sustainable development across the entire scope of our workplan. We
    welcome the results of the multi-sectoral symposium on relationships
    among food and energy and the environment under the pressures of rapid
    economic and population growth, as well as the

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    interim report we have received. We look forward to presentation of a
    more detailed and action-oriented report in 1998.
        18. Connecting efforts on climate change: We recognize the
    importance of accelerating action on a global level to deal with
    emissions of greenhouse gases. We affirm that this issue is of vital
    significance, and that it requires cooperative efforts by the
    international community, in accordance with the principle of common but
    differentiated responsibilities. We emphasize our strong support for a
    successful outcome to the Third Conference of the Parties in furthering
    the objectives of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN-
    FCCC). We note that all APEC members can make important contributions to
    this effort. We also agree that the enhancement of energy efficiency
    plays an important role in addressing climate change. We affirm the
    importance of flexible and cost-effective cooperative approaches to
    reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including by promoting the
    development and diffusion of beneficial technologies. We recognize the
    legitimate needs of developing economies to promote their sustainable
    development in furthering the objectives of the UN-FCCC and, in this
    respect, the importance of enhancing the availability of beneficial
    technologies.
        19. Connecting emergency response: We recognize that unexpected
    disasters which affect one of us can affect all of us, and that we can
    benefit from sharing expertise and collaborating on emergency
    preparedness and response. We welcome the initiative of Ministers in
    this regard.
        20. Connecting the people of Asia-Pacific: Continued prosperity in
    the region will depend heavily on our willingness and our ability to
    vest the next generation of leaders of the region with the skills and
    knowledge they require. We applaud the initiative to involve youth
    throughout APEC's 1997 activities. Education and skill-building remain
    key objectives for long-term employment of our youth, and we call on
    Ministers to work with young people, academics, workers and business to
    share approaches on successful transitions from the learning environment
    to the work force. We welcome the Electronic Source Book on work, study
    and exchange opportunities in the region, the establishment and
    development of the APEC Education Foundation, and the APEC Youth Skills
    Camp and the APEC Youth Science and Technology Festival, both to be held
    in 1998 in Seoul. We appreciate the offer by Singapore to establish an
    APEC Education Hub, which includes the granting of scholarships to APEC
    students. We welcome the holding of a Ministerial Conference on
    Education in 1999 in Singapore to explore the possibility to expand this
    initiative, offering quality programmes to students in the region.
        We believe APEC should take specific steps to reinforce the
    important role of women in economic development. We welcome the offer of
    the Philippines to host a Ministerial Meeting on Women in 1998 in
    Manila, to take stock of progress to date in involving women in APEC's
    agenda and to determine next steps to integrate women into the
    mainstream of APEC's activities.
        21. Spanning twelve time zones from St. John's to Sumatra, APEC
    bridges both distance and diversity. Through a combination of concrete
    results and renewed vision, the spirit of community which unites us has
    been strengthened and broadened this year. The people of the region
    remain its greatest asset. As Leaders, we are accountable for
    safeguarding and improving their economic and social well-being. Our
    people are the foundation on which the APEC community is built. We
    commit ourselves to ensuring that APEC remains responsive to their
    concerns.