[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 48 (Monday, December 1, 1997)]
[Pages 1915-1920]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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

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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 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

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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 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

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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 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

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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 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

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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.