[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 37 (Monday, September 20, 1999)]
[Pages 1735-1738]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The Auckland Challenge: APEC Economic Leaders' Declaration

September 13, 1999

    We, the Economic Leaders of APEC, celebrate here in Auckland ten 
years of unprecedented cooperation in our region, in pursuit of a vision 
of stability, security and prosperity for our peoples. We shall continue 
to exercise leadership to reach our goals and to meet the challenge we 
have set ourselves.
    We welcome the improved performance and prospects of our economies 
since we last met, and commend the actions taken to reform those 
economies affected by the crisis. The cooperative growth strategy we 
adopted in Kuala Lumpur, and sound macroeconomic policies in key 
economies, have supported the restoration of confidence and growth, and 
have allowed us to share growing confidence about our prospects.
    We are not complacent about the risks that might impede recovery and 
sustainable growth and we will sustain the momentum for reform. 
Continued multilateral and bilateral support is still important. We 
welcome and endorse the efforts of Ministers through the year in pursuit 
of APEC's goals. As Leaders, we accept responsibility for resisting 
protectionism, opening markets further, and addressing structural and 
regulatory weaknesses that contributed to the economic downturn from 
1997. We will achieve this by strengthening our markets through 
regulatory reform and enhanced competition and by improving the 
international framework governing trade and investment flows. To this 
end we commit to the launch of a new Round of negotiations in the World 
Trade Organisation.
    All people in our communities have a stake in the success of APEC. 
We want to ensure they achieve their full potential for improved 
economic and social well being. We particularly welcome the more active 
participation of women and business in APEC's work this year.

Supporting Growth through Strong and Open Markets

    Improved competitiveness through ongoing reform is the road to 
recovery and sustainable growth. Through APEC, we seek to expand 
opportunities for business and employment growth, build strong and open 
markets and ensure that our communities

and economies can participate successfully in the international economy. 
Open, transparent and well-governed markets, both domestic and 
international, are the essential foundation of prosperity and enable 
enterprises to innovate and create wealth.

    We will strengthen our markets by:
<bullet>    providing greater transparency and predictability in 
            corporate and public sector governance
<bullet>    enhancing the role of competition to improve efficiency and 
            broaden participation by enterprises
<bullet>    improving the quality of regulation and the capacity of 
            regulators to design and implement policies for sustainable 
            growth
<bullet>    reducing compliance costs and facilitating business growth
<bullet>    building a favorable regional and international environment 
            for free and fair competition
    In reconfirming our commitment to achieve the Bogor Goals of free 
and open trade and investment by 2010/2020, we endorse the attached APEC 
Principles to Enhance Competition and Regulatory Reform. These 
principles provide a core part of the framework for strengthening our 
markets which will better integrate individual and collective actions by 
APEC economies to achieve those goals.
    We accept Ministers' proposals for an initial work programme to 
strengthen markets. This gives priority to strengthening market 
infrastructure and human capacity in our economies and enterprises, 
especially in developing economies. It also calls for specific 
implementation strategies in areas such as natural gas and e-commerce. 
We call upon

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the private sector, including the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) 
and the APEC Financiers' Group, to contribute to these efforts.
    We welcome and endorse the work of our Finance Ministers, and 
encourage their efforts to strengthen domestic financial markets and 
secure the foundation for the return of capital to the region by:
<bullet>    enhanced supervision of financial markets, including through 
            improved training of supervisors and regulators
<bullet>    developing domestic bond markets based on the just published 
            Compendium of Sound Practices
<bullet>    developing and applying agreed corporate governance 
            principles
    The alignment of the APEC Finance Ministers' process with the APEC 
Leaders' process offers new opportunities for cooperation. We instruct 
our Ministers to pursue greater links among APEC fora and their work 
programmes. We look forward to receiving a report from Finance Ministers 
of further progress in dealing with financial market issues when we next 
meet.
    We reaffirm that individual actions by economies are the principal 
means by which APEC's goal will be attained. We acknowledge that 
progress towards the Bogor Goals has been uneven, and undertake to 
continue concrete actions to fulfill our commitment. We also accept the 
views of ABAC and other business representatives who have called for 
action plans to be more specific, transparent and comprehensive, and 
welcome the initiative by Ministers to review and strengthen processes 
for individual and collective actions under the Oaska Action Agenda.
    APEC's trade facilitation programmes are already delivering 
substantial benefits--in customs harmonisation, standards and 
conformance, and increased mobility of business people. We welcome the 
agreed new initiatives, and instruct Ministers to give priority to this 
work next year, in consultation with business, and to better communicate 
the value of APEC's trade facilitation role.
    Enhanced economic and technical cooperation is essential if we are 
to lift our peoples into prosperity, and narrow the development gap 
among Asia/Pacific economies. The financial crisis has underlined the 
importance of cooperation in human and institutional capacity building, 
science and technology exchanges and development of infrastructure. We 
direct our Ministers to give special attention in the coming year to 
improving effective and coordinated delivery of APEC's Ecotech and 
capacity building programmes, in accordance with the Manila Declaration.
    We welcome Ministers' report on the APEC Food System proposed by the 
APEC Business Advisory Council, and endorse its recommendations on the 
development of rural infrastructure, dissemination of technological 
advances in food production and processing, and promotion of trade in 
food products. A robust regional food system that efficiently links food 
production, food processing and consumption, is a vital contribution to 
meeting the objectives of APEC. We instruct Ministers to implement the 
recommendations taking into account ABAC's submission this year, and 
monitor annually progress towards achieving the APEC Food System.
    We recognise the key role that electronic commerce will play in 
linking our economies. APEC must continue its efforts to create a 
favourable environment for e-commerce in cooperation with the private 
sector.
    In a little over 100 days, APEC economies will face the challenges 
and risks of the century date change. Intense activities in economies 
and throughout the region have lessened risks but more cooperative 
planning must occur. We recognise that global interdependence means we 
must continue our efforts to prepare, accelerate cross-border 
contingency planning, and enhance transparency about readiness as a 
matter of the highest priority. We adopt the APEC Y2K 100 Days 
Cooperation Initiative to intensify cooperation for responding to 
potential Y2K events. We agree to share information and expertise about 
Y2K impacts on critical infrastructures during and after the date 
change.

APEC in the Global Economy

    APEC will continue to play a leadership role in strengthening the 
global economy, especially the multilateral trading system.
    Strong financial systems are fundamental to achieving robust, open 
and growing economies. We welcome the report from our Finance Ministers 
on developments in

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strengthening the international finance architecture and are encouraged 
by the progress made. The establishment of the Financial Stability Forum 
and the new informal mechanism to enhance dialogue among the 
systematically important economies should advance cooperation on 
strengthening the international financial system. We support ongoing 
efforts to improve crisis prevention and crisis resolution, and urge 
prompt action to improve transparency of highly leveraged institutions. 
We also support the developing consensus on the need to ensure that 
reforms of the international financial system, and domestic financial 
markets, are mutually reinforcing. APEC's diverse membership provides a 
special contribution to discussions on domestic and international 
financial reforms. In respect of both the public and private sectors, 
APEC advocates:
<bullet>    greater transparency and openness including improved 
            reliability and timeliness of information
<bullet>    clearer accountability for decisions and judgements
    This year, APEC has a unique opportunity to give impetus to 
deliberations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). We will give the 
strongest possible support at Seattle to the launch of a new Round of 
multilateral negotiations within the WTO, and endorse the positions 
adopted by Ministers. We recognise the need to build public confidence 
in this process and to improve coordination on trade related matters 
among relevant international organisations. We agree on the importance 
of ensuring full implementation of existing WTO agreements. We see 
continued growth in international trade and investment as the best means 
of achieving prosperity and security.
    In particular, we agree that the new Round should:
<bullet>    include comprehensive market access negotiations covering 
            industrial tariffs in addition to the already mandated 
            negotiations on services and agriculture
<bullet>    lead to timely and effective improvements in market access 
            to the benefit of all participating economies, particularly 
            developing economies and, consistent with this objective, 
            provide scope to review and strengthen rules and disciplines
<bullet>    have a balanced and sufficiently broad-based agenda and be 
            concluded within three years as a single package which does 
            not preclude the possibility of early results on a 
            provisional basis
    We support, as one of the important objectives of the negotiations 
on agriculture, the abolition of agricultural export subsidies and 
unjustifiable export prohibitions and restrictions.
    We call on all WTO members to join us at Seattle in a commitment not 
to impose new or more restrictive trade measures for the duration of the 
negotiations, as applied during the Uruguay Round. We pledge not to 
impose any such measures before the Seattle WTO Ministerial meeting.
    Support for ongoing WTO negotiations will remain a key area of 
APEC's work throughout those negotiations. In particular we resolve to 
work actively in the negotiations to ensure that APEC and WTO are 
mutually reinforcing. To respond fully to the challenges and 
opportunities of today's interdependent world for the benefit of all our 
peoples and to avoid fragmentation of the international trading system, 
we need to ensure convergence between regional and multilateral 
liberalisation initiatives.
    In order to achieve universality of membership, we also seek early 
progress in the accession negotiations to the WTO, including for those 
APEC economies that are not yet WTO members. We issue a strong call for 
these accession negotiations to be concluded at the earliest 
opportunity, if possible prior to commencement of the new WTO 
negotiations.

Participation in Prosperity

    As Leaders, we recognise our responsibilities to ensure full and 
successful participation by all of our populations in the modern 
economy. Technological change has irreversibly integrated global markets 
for goods and services, and finance. The effective development and 
application of knowledge will be a key driver of future economic 
success, and we pledge to ensure that APEC economies are to the 
forefront of building and sharing

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their expertise in this vital sector. Cooperation in such fields as e-
education, science and technology and life-long skills development 
should be strengthened. Globalisation must become an opportunity for 
all.
    We commit to ensuring that APEC takes a leading role in enabling 
developing economies to participate successfully in the global economy, 
through enhancing human and institutional capacities and progressively 
opening markets. We recognize that income and wealth disparities between 
and within economies can pose a challenge for social stability. 
Appropriate social safety nets play a role in facilitating economic and 
social adjustment. We welcome efforts by APEC economies, and other 
institutions, to address social safety net issues, and encourage further 
efforts to maintain employment and environmentally sustainable growth. 
In that regard, we welcome the outcomes of the Human Resources 
Development and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministerial Meetings. APEC 
economies will pursue enhanced dialogue and continue to seek policy 
approaches that encourage inclusion and economic advancement, as well as 
initiative and innovation.
    We welcome the Framework for the Integration of Women in APEC, which 
is a significant step to enhance the ability of women to contribute to 
and benefit from prosperity of the region. We shall review 
implementation of the Framework when we next meet.
    In 1999, we have enhanced opportunities for business, especially 
smaller enterprises, to make their views known in APEC. Those views are 
of keen interest to us. Further dialogue with the private sector, at all 
levels, is essential to maintain the dynamism and relevance of APEC. We 
also look to the private sector for support for reform.
    Once again, we welcome the recommendations from the APEC Business 
Advisory Council, ABAC, and thank members of the Council for their 
contribution in areas such as capacity building, finance, food, e-
commerce and air services. We instruct Ministers to take the ABAC 
recommendations into account during their work in 2000. We support 
implementation of the eight steps for more competitive air services, and 
the identification of further steps to liberalise air services in 
accordance with the Bogor Goals. Tourism and air services have a large 
contribution to make to development and community building in the 
region.

Conclusion

    As Leaders, we recognise that our role in APEC, as in our own 
economies, is to set the course which will allow for sustainable 
development and which will deliver a strong social dividend to their 
populations. We acknowledge that economic adjustments may be difficult, 
and that there is social cost which must be reduced. But we are united 
in our belief that the path to increased prosperity requires continual 
reform and adjustment of our policies and outlook. An open regional 
framework, within which competition and cooperation flourish, is the 
best means of building a prosperous future together. We embark on APEC's 
second decade confident that a deepening and enduring spirit of 
openness, partnership and community is being built. The challenge we 
collectively face is to maintain our momentum and deliver on our 
commitment. We accept the challenge.

Note: This declaration was made available by the Office of the Press 
Secretary but was not issued as a White House press release. An original 
was not available for verification of the content of this declaration.