APEC

APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, is a regional economic forum formed in 1989 to promote free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. It aims to support sustainable economic growth and prosperity through market openness, regional integration, and economic and technical cooperation. The forum’s leaders began meeting to discuss policy cooperation in the early 1990s, with the first Economic Leaders’ Meeting held in 1993.

APEC has 21 member economies: Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; the People’s Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; the Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; the Philippines; the Russian Federation; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; the United States; and Viet Nam.

APEC operates through Senior Officials' Meetings and Ministers’ Meetings, coordinated by the APEC Secretariat in Singapore. The forum emphasizes three core aims: trade and investment liberalization, business facilitation, and economic and technical cooperation. It pursues the Bogor Goals, established in 1994, which call for free and open trade and investment in the region, with development considerations for less-advantaged members. Initiatives include tariff reduction and removal, services liberalization, trade facilitation, and cooperation on the digital economy, supply-chain resilience, and environmental goods.

As a voluntary, consensus-based forum, APEC does not negotiate binding agreements or enforce policies. Critics argue that its lack of binding commitments limits its impact, and the diverse interests of its members can hinder progress. Nevertheless, APEC remains a major platform for regional economic dialogue, shaping trade policy, investment, standards, and regional integration strategies among economies that together account for a large share of global trade and output.