U.S. Relations with the People's Republic of China (2005)

APEC Backs Security Initiatives, Completion of WTO Trade Round

Joint statement at end of Asian-Pacific meeting covers wide range of topics

Following is the full text of the joint statement from the APEC ministerial meeting:

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The Seventeenth APEC Ministerial Meeting: Joint Statement

Busan, Republic of Korea
15-16 November 2005

APEC Ministers from 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; Russia; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; the United States of America; and Viet Nam, representing economies which collectively account for forty-six percent of world trade, fifty-seven percent of the global GDP and forty-five percent of the global population, gathered in Busan, Korea, on 15-16 November 2005, in order to participate in the Seventeenth Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting. The APEC Secretariat was also present. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) attended as official observers. The meeting was chaired by H.E. Ban Ki-moon, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and H.E. Hyun Chong Kim, Minister for Trade of the Republic of Korea.

Ministers focused discussions around the APEC 2005 theme: "Towards One Community: Meet the Challenge, Make the Change." They reaffirmed their commitment to achieving trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation in the APEC region by 2010 and 2020, and resolved to continually push it forward in this regard.

Ministers reviewed the key achievements of APEC 2005, which was hosted by the Republic of Korea, and agreed upon initiatives to be undertaken during the APEC 2006 year, which will be hosted by Viet Nam.

Ministers agreed to the following:

Strengthening the Multilateral Trading System

1. APEC's Contribution to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations

Ministers reaffirmed the utmost importance APEC economies attached to the successful conclusion of the DDA negotiations by the end of 2006 with an ambitious and overall balanced outcome.

Ministers agreed that the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, China would be a critical step in achieving this goal and that significant progress must be made in the Ministerial in resolving considerable divergences, and a clear roadmap for completing the Round in 2006 must be established.

In this regard, Ministers recommended the Leaders to adopt a stand-alone statement on the DDA negotiations that provided strong political leadership and commitment necessary to produce a sound platform for successfully concluding the negotiations in Hong Kong, China, and urged all other WTO Members to show flexibilities needed to move forward the negotiations by and beyond the Hong Kong Ministerial.

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Trade and Investment Liberalisation and Facilitation (TILF)

Ministers endorsed the 2005 Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI) Annual Report to Ministers on APEC's Trade and Investment Liberalisation and Facilitation activities, including the revised/enhanced CAPs, and commended the progress made by the CTI in implementing the CAPs. They welcomed the achievements, in particular, in the following areas:

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2. Trade Facilitation Action Plan (TFAP)

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Ministers welcomed the fruitful outcomes of the APEC Symposium on Assessment and Benchmark of Paperless Trading held in China in September. Ministers urged all member economies to strengthen cooperation in this area with a view of reinforcing mutual cooperation and pushing forward the achievement of APEC's paperless trading goals.

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6. Food Cooperation

Ministers welcomed the progress made by economies towards strengthening food safety cooperation across APEC and noted the outcomes of the Food Safety Cooperation Seminar held in Gyeongju, co-sponsored by China, Australia, Thailand and Viet Nam. Ministers were encouraged by the ongoing work towards achieving a stocktake of the activities of relevant international and regional organisations aimed at promoting food safety, and they welcomed the establishment of an Ad Hoc Steering Group on food safety cooperation under the CTI SCSC. In completing its mandate, the Ad Hoc Group was expected to take input from and work in close collaboration with the Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Group (ATCWG).

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Human Security

Ministers shared the pain of bereaved families in the areas stricken by terrorist attacks and natural disasters, and expressed their deep condolences. They stressed the need to achieve the objectives of human security and trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation and highlighted the activities being undertaken in the areas of counter-terrorism, non-proliferation, infectious diseases, emergency preparedness and energy security.

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2. Health Security

Avian and Pandemic Influenza:

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They underscored the importance of timely and accurate reporting and capacity building efforts to enable adequate, systematic and well-coordinated prevention. In this connection, Ministers looked forward to active participation in the APEC Symposium on Emerging Infectious Diseases to be held in China in April 2006.

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3. Emergency Preparedness

Ministers recalled that APEC Leaders stated when they met in Vancouver in late 1997 that they "recognised 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." Ministers noted that the Leaders' statement had proved particularly true when the APEC region was hit by a series of devastating natural disasters rarely seen before in human history: the earthquake and seismic tidal waves that struck the regions bordering the Indian Ocean last December; earthquakes in Indonesia; Hurricane Katrina and Rita in the United States; Hurricane Wilma in Mexico; and a series of typhoons in China. These natural disasters reminded Ministers that APEC had exerted collective efforts to fight against and respond to natural disasters in the past and that APEC should build on the past and continue to play its value-added role in strengthening emergency preparedness and disaster recovery measures, to complement activities in other fora, such as those under the Hyogo Framework for Action adopted by the UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction in January.

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4. Energy Security

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Ministers highlighted the important role of renewable energy among APEC economies, especially developing economies. They welcomed the APEC Workshop on the Development of Renewable Energy held in China in September.

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Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH)

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Ministers welcomed the outcomes of the APEC Workshop on Invasive Alien Species held in Beijing in September and co-sponsored by China and the United States, and endorsed the APEC Strategy on Invasive Alien Species. Ministers commended on the progress regarding the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Centre (AFDC) in Shanghai and recognised it as an important step forward for promoting financial stability and development, financial system reform and capacity building in the region.

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Industrial Science and Technology:

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Ministers welcomed the outcome of the APEC Biotechnology Conference held in Chinese Taipei, which identified factors needed for the growth of the biotech industry in the APEC region.

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