The Seventeenth APEC Ministerial Meeting: Joint Statement

Busan, Republic of Korea
November 15-16,2005

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.

2. WTO Capacity Building

Ministers reaffirmed the importance of trade-related capacity building as a tool to enable developing economies to accede to the WTO, fully participate in the WTO negotiations, enjoy the full benefits of the WTO membership, and maximise the potential of trade as a tool for social and economic development.

Ministers welcomed the first policy-oriented WTO Capacity Building Workshop on Best Practices in Trade Facilitation Capacity Building held in Jeju in May, and urged Officials to continue work in this area based on the workshop's recommendations. Ministers welcomed the outcomes of the APEC/WTO Trade Facilitation Roundtable 2005 held in Geneva in February, which provided a unique opportunity to share APEC's expertise in trade facilitation with WTO members. They also welcomed the Seminar on the Information Technology (IT)/Electronics Industry held in Gyeongju in September as an effective measure for capacity building and raising awareness of future trade expansion of IT/electronic products.

Ministers instructed Officials to continue to implement capacity building activities across the full range of areas included in the WTO DDA negotiations, and to continue to evaluate APEC's past capacity building activities, drawing on the expertise of APEC members as well as international organisations, and to report their progress at the Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) meeting next year. They called for further APEC attention to the issues of multi-stakeholder and intra-governmental consultations, recognising that these were crucial tools for APEC members to identify their interests and build consensus before and during trade negotiations.

3. Accession of APEC members to the WTO

Ministers welcomed the progress that has been made in the WTO accession negotiations for the Russian Federation and Viet Nam, and looked forward to the rapid conclusion of these negotiations for their early accession.

4. APEC Geneva Caucus

Ministers commended the work undertaken by the APEC Geneva Caucus to advance the DDA negotiations, especially in the area of tariff elimination of IT products and of trade facilitation, and instructed it to continue its work with a view of sharing APEC's experience with WTO Members, contributing to the successful outcome of the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference and promoting an ambitious and balanced conclusion of the DDA negotiations. They highly welcomed the visit by members of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) to Geneva in June in an effort to provide business input into the DDA negotiations.

Mid-term Stocktake of the Bogor Goals

Ministers endorsed the report, A Mid-term Stocktake of Progress Towards the Bogor Goals: Busan Roadmap to the Bogor Goals. They commended the report for demonstrating APEC's good progress towards the Bogor Goals and for developing a roadmap to achieve the Bogor Goals and to meet the expectations of the business community in facilitating business activities. Ministers agreed to recommend that Leaders endorse the report.

Ministers recognised that APEC economies had achieved significant liberalisation and facilitation of trade and investment since 1994. They also noted that the rewards from these policy choices had been substantial and had contributed to sustained economic growth and significant welfare improvements in the region.

Ministers remained fully committed to achieving the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for developed members and 2020 for developing members as stipulated in the Bogor Declaration. Ministers emphasised that the Bogor Goals, the core organising principle of APEC, aimed at promoting sustainable growth and prosperity in the region.

Recognising that the environment for trade was constantly evolving, Ministers expressed the need for APEC to adapt its focus accordingly and to continue to deliver concrete and business relevant outcomes in the years ahead to realise the Bogor Goals. They agreed that, while the APEC agenda should be revitalised to keep pace with the new international trade environment, APEC must ensure the achievement of the Bogor Goals.

In order to accelerate progress towards the Bogor Goals, Ministers particularly emphasised the Busan Roadmap to the Bogor Goals, which outlines key priorities and frameworks, such as support for the multilateral trading system, strengthening collective and individual actions, promotion of high-quality regional trade agreements and free trade agreements (RTAs/FTAs), the Busan Business Agenda, a strategic approach to capacity building and the pathfinder approach, ensuring APEC to better respond to the new business environment and continuing to drive free and open trade and investment in the region through work on intellectual property rights (IPR), trade facilitation, anti-corruption, investment, and secure trade.

Ministers reaffirmed their deep commitment to the multilateral trading system and their support for the WTO. They agreed that APEC economies would continue to make contributions towards the successful outcome of the WTO DDA negotiations and that the APEC Geneva Caucus must redouble its collective efforts to advance the negotiations in all areas of the DDA. They agreed that, once the results of the DDA negotiations were known, APEC members would need to consider what further liberalisation steps would be needed to help reach the Bogor Goals.

Ministers agreed that Individual Action Plans (IAPs) and Collective Action Plans (CAPs) were the major vehicles in achieving the Bogor Goals. They agreed to strengthen the IAP Peer Review processes and make them more transparent and accessible to business. Ministers consequently agreed that the next round of the IAP peer reviews would be conducted from 2007-2009 under the strengthened review framework.

They agreed that high-quality RTAs/FTAs maximised the contribution of these agreements to APEC-wide progress towards the Bogor Goals. Ministers agreed that APEC would develop by 2008 comprehensive model measures on as many commonly accepted RTA/FTA chapters as possible by building on its work in developing model measures for trade facilitation, taking into account the diversity of APEC economies. They agreed that this would be a valuable contribution to maintaining consistency and coherence across RTAs/FTAs in the region.

Ministers agreed that APEC must develop a comprehensive business facilitation program along with strategies, taking into account the diversity of member economies with respect to economic development and domestic policy objectives that also addressed behind-the-border administrative burdens and impediments to trade and investment.

They also underscored the need for APEC to continue to put emphasis on economic and technical cooperation (ECOTECH) to ensure that the Bogor Goals were not only reached, but that their potential benefits were distributed as broadly as possible within the Asia-Pacific community.

Ministers encouraged the implementation of the decisions and commitments taken in the APEC context, both individually and collectively, while preserving APEC's core principles of voluntarism, comprehensiveness, and consensus-based decision-making.

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:

1. Advancing Trade and Investment Liberalisation and Facilitation

Individual and Collective Action Plans:

Ministers reaffirmed the importance they attached to the Individual Action Plans (IAPs) as one of the principle vehicles for reaching the Bogor Goals. Ministers endorsed the 2005 IAPs and welcomed the measures undertaken by individual economies to liberalise and facilitate trade. Ministers also welcomed the report of the newly included issues in the IAPs: RTAs/FTAs and Implementation of General and Area-Specific Transparency, all of which would contribute to greater transparency in the activities undertaken by member economies.

Ministers welcomed the successful completion of the IAP Peer Reviews of all twenty-one (21) member economies as our Leaders had instructed in 2001, which confirmed that all member economies were making good progress towards achieving the Bogor Goals. Ministers also welcomed the continuation of the IAP Peer Review Process for the next three (3) years in a strengthened manner, including a greater focus on what APEC members were doing individually and collectively to implement specific APEC commitments and priorities. Ministers endorsed the revised IAP Peer Review Guidelines and the timetable to carry out the next round of reviews, noting that this would provide greater opportunities for business to raise its views.

Ministers welcomed the progress made in the CAPs and instructed Officials to continue to review and update them in order to substantially contribute to APEC's commitment to free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region by 2010/2020.

Ministers endorsed the APEC-OECD Integrated Checklist on Regulatory Reform (Checklist), which is a voluntary tool that member economies may use to assess their respective regulatory reform efforts. They instructed Officials to continue to explore ways of working with the OECD to disseminate the Checklist as well as to assist economies in utilising this tool.

Ministers noted the progress in improving the reporting mechanism of Strengthening Economic Legal Infrastructure (SELI) and a work plan to develop a new SELI IAP template in 2006.

Investment:

Ministers noted the importance of investment flows to and from the APEC region and reaffirmed the importance of investment liberalisation and facilitation in the progress towards the Bogor Goals. The APEC Investment Opportunities Conference 2005 to be held in Busan in November would provide a useful overview of diverse investment climates in the APEC members, offering a forum for member economies to exchange information on individual investment frameworks. Ministers welcomed Viet Nam's proposal to hold an APEC Seminar on Experiences in Attracting Investment from Trans National Corporations (TNCs).

Ministers noted the important contribution made by the APEC Non-Binding Investment Principles (NBIP), which were concluded in 1994 to achieve more liberal investment regimes in the APEC region. Ministers welcomed the efforts to strengthen interaction with ABAC and reaffirmed the need to improve the investment environment for business in the region and instructed Officials to further intensify their efforts to achieve investment liberalisation and facilitation.

Ministers welcomed the outcomes of the APEC Seminar held in Tokyo in September, focusing on the recent developments of the investment elements in RTAs/FTAs and bilateral investment treaties (BITs). Ministers stressed the need to strengthen work in the investment area, including assistance to APEC economies in identifying the impact of investment liberalisation and a further study on the interaction and relationship between various agreements on investment.

Ministers noted the APEC-OECD seminar on policy framework for investment held in November, which identified many areas where APEC and the OECD could strengthen cooperation on investment for development.

Customs Procedures:

Ministers commended the work done to reflect the growing needs of trade facilitation and security through simplification and harmonisation of customs procedures in the region and in that context welcomed two new CAP items, i.e. the Time Release Survey, which is a useful tool to find and improve bottlenecks in customs related procedures, thereby facilitating trade.

Ministers welcomed the release of an 'APEC Customs and Trade Facilitation Handbook', which would give Asia-Pacific businesses better access to information on customs laws and regulations in APEC member economies. The handbook offers an invaluable resource for business people to avoid costs incurred by a lack of knowledge of procedures and regulations.

Business Mobility:

Ministers noted the importance of business mobility in trade facilitation. They welcomed the entry of Viet Nam as the 17th member of the APEC Business Travel Card (ABTC) Scheme and commended efforts within APEC to facilitate business mobility while making travel more secure.

Standards and Conformance:

Recognising that the alignment of domestic standards with international standards contributed to trade facilitation in the region, Ministers welcomed the results of a comprehensive review that showed a very high level of achievement of the alignment work in the agreed upon priority areas. Ministers instructed Officials to launch new voluntary alignment works on the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) standards for electrical equipment, especially for those that were covered under the IEC System for Conformity Testing to Standards for Safety of Electrical Equipment (IECEE) Certification Bodies (CB) Scheme to be completed by 2010.

Ministers also welcomed the publication of the first CTI Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC) blueprint, which summarised the activities undertaken in the areas of Standards and Conformance in APEC, noting that it would enhance the knowledge of the business community on standards and conformance related work.

Private Sector Development:

Ministers acknowledged that issues like trade facilitation, transparency and business regulations and administrative procedures had noteworthy effects on the development of the private sector, especially SMEs. They welcomed the initiative to develop a Private Sector Development agenda to improve the business environment in the region and to continue to support the development of SMEs in terms of raising their competitiveness in the marketplace. They noted that such efforts would build on existing areas of APEC work such as trade facilitation, transparency and regulatory reform, promote the sharing of best practices and support the outcomes of the 12th APEC SME Ministerial Meeting and focus on capacity building.

2. Trade Facilitation Action Plan (TFAP)

Ministers welcomed the progress made by economies towards meeting the target established under the 2001 TFAP of a five (5) percent reduction in trade facilitation costs by 2006. They agreed to another five (5) percent reduction by 2010.

• Ministers commended the progress made by the member economies in implementing the APEC TFAP and welcomed the reports by the economies on actions and measures taken in the areas of movement of goods, standards and conformance, business mobility and e-commerce.
  
  
• Ministers welcomed the preparatory work underway for the final review in 2006 and endorsed the TFAP Roadmap to 2006 that proposed a work program to ensure that APEC accomplished the goal of the aforementioned five (5) percent reduction in transaction costs across the region by 2006. They also instructed Officials to develop a work plan that would take the TFAP beyond 2006.
  
  
• Ministers instructed Officials to carry out further concrete actions in identified priority areas, such as improving customs procedures, enhancing the alignment of domestic standards with international standards, facilitating business mobility and fostering a paperless trading environment, with a view of producing tangible benefits for the business community and stressed the need to promote capacity building in the aforementioned four (4) areas to enable all economies to fully implement the TFAP.

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.

They welcomed the initiative by Australia and Viet Nam for a targeted process of 2006 and endorsed the development of a comprehensive business facilitation program, which builds on the gains made by the TFAP and the Santiago Initiative for Expanding Trade in APEC and also draws in the APEC Finance Ministers' Process and ABAC to develop effective strategies and modalities.

Ministers welcomed outreach efforts by the CTI and the APEC Secretariat to showcase APEC's achievements and future plans in the area of trade facilitation, including the publication of a business outreach brochure.

3. RTAs/FTAs

Ministers emphasised the importance they attached to APEC's work on RTAs/FTAs. APEC members view high-quality and comprehensive RTAs/FTAs as one of the principal avenues for reaching the Bogor Goals. Ministers noted that there was a window of opportunity for APEC to help ensure that the spread of RTAs/FTAs in the region was consistent with the Bogor Goals. Ministers instructed Officials to continue their work on developing policies towards RTAs/FTAs.

They agreed that APEC should continue to play a constructive role in this area by exchanging information and experiences on APEC member economies' RTAs/FTAs as well as by taking concrete measures to enhance transparency in IAPs and to strengthen targeted capacity building. In this regard, they welcomed efforts by the parties to the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership to brief other APEC members on the recently concluded agreement.

Ministers agreed that the RTAs/FTAs Best Practices document agreed upon last year helped to promote a common understanding of and greater convergence and coherence among RTAs/FTAs. Ministers also agreed to continue efforts to use the Best Practices document on a voluntary basis as a meaningful reference in RTAs/FTAs negotiations.

Ministers took note of the successful 3rd Trade Policy Dialogue on RTAs/FTAs held in Jeju in May andwelcomed the work program, initiated at the Dialogue, on developing model measures for RTAs/FTAs chapters. In this regard, they welcomed the Model Measures for Trade Facilitation in RTAs/FTAs and expressed their conviction that these non-binding model measures, which APEC members were encouraged to follow, would serve as a reference for APEC member economies achieving high-quality free trade agreements, making a genuine contribution to the liberalisation and expansion of trade in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ministers supported capacity building assistance to help member economies, especially developing economies, to enhance negotiations skills for RTAs/FTAs and for addressing the concerns of domestic industries. They welcomed expanding initiatives in this area, including the Workshop on Preferential Rules of Origin in Seoul, and looked forward to the forthcoming workshop on investment and market access issues in Malaysia, the advanced workshops on negotiating FTAs in Indonesia, and the APEC Workshop on Best Practices in Trade Policy for RTAs/FTAs: Practical Lessons and Experiences for Developing Economies to be held in Viet Nam in 2006.

4. Strengthened Intellectual Property Protection and Enforcement

Ministers recognised that the protection and enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is essential to building a knowledge-based economy and are key factors for boosting economic development, promoting investment, spurring innovation, developing creative industries and driving economic growth.

Ministers fully supported the APEC Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Initiative adopted at the June 2005 meeting of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade. Ministers endorsed the APEC Model Guidelines to Reduce Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods, to Protect Against Unauthorised Copies, and to Prevent the Sale of Counterfeit Goods over the Internet, as called for in the APEC Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Initiative. Ministers agreed that the model guidelines and templates were a timely policy response to the emerging challenges of online piracy and trade in counterfeit and pirated goods and are valuable tools to help economies strengthen their IPR protection and enforcement regimes, as well as to raise public awareness about the importance of this issue. Given the importance of strong IPR regimes in the region, Ministers instructed economies to take further steps that build on the APEC Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Initiative in the coming year, in consultation with the private sector so as to reduce trade in counterfeit and pirated goods, curtail online piracy, and increase cooperation and capacity building in this area.

Ministers called on economies to complete the exchange of information on their IPR websites, IPR enforcement officials and steps they had taken to apply the APEC Effective Practices for Regulations Related to Optical Disc Production before SOM II 2006, and to take steps to further this work.

Ministers welcomed members' progress in advancing the CAPs on IPR including the establishment of eleven (11) IPR Service Centres and encouraged members to make further progress.

Ministers noted the success of the APEC High-level Symposium on IPR held in Xiamen in September, which marked an important step to strengthen cooperation on IPR protection among members and to enhance the dialogue between the public and private sectors.

5. Pathfinder Initiatives

Recognising that pathfinder initiatives were valuable tools for furthering trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, Ministers stressed the importance of ensuring progress and retaining momentum in such initiatives. They encouraged Officials to hold further discussions on the implementation of current initiatives as well as to continue their efforts to identify additional areas in APEC that could serve as potential candidates for the pathfinder approach in accordance with the Guidelines on Pathfinders adopted last year, and encouraged further discussions on their implementation.

Trade and Digital Economy:

Ministers welcomed the progress made in implementing the Pathfinder on Trade and Digital Economy, in particular, the completion of the survey of member economies' Best Practices for Combating Optical Disk Piracy and the discussions on possible technology choice principles. They welcomed the successful workshop on technology choice held in February to discuss issues/policies aimed at maximising users' and suppliers' choices of innovative products and services. Ministers recognised the outcome of the dialogue on technology choice in February 2005, which focused on the relationship between the promotion of innovation and the development of knowledge-based economies and technology neutral policies and regulations; open, international, and voluntary standards; and non-discriminatory, transparent, technology neutral, and merit-based government procurement policies. Ministers agreed to continue discussion on these concepts in 2006, with a view to developing a set of technology choice principles for inclusion in the Leaders' Pathfinder Statement to implement APEC Policies on Trade and the Digital Economy.

APEC Sectoral Food Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) Pathfinder Initiative:

Ministers welcomed the fruitful outcome of the first APEC Sectoral Food MRA Pathfinder Initiative Meeting hosted by Thailand in June and endorsed Thailand's proposal to host a Seminar on the Development of Sectoral Food MRAs in June 2006. Member economies' active participation in this event is encouraged as it would help this pathfinder initiative make progress and facilitate trade in food products, which is important to the region and APEC's overall goals.

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).

APEC Food System (AFS):

Ministers also welcomed the joint and cross-cutting actions being implemented by all APEC member economies and APEC fora, such as the ATCWG, to implement the APEC Food System. They encouraged further work to develop agriculture in the APEC region, including further work to develop rural infrastructure, to promote trade in food products and to disseminate technological advances in food production and processing.

Anti-Corruption and Transparency Standards

Ministers recognised that APEC's goal of economic prosperity could not be achieved unless corruption, both in the domestic economies and in international business transactions, was effectively addressed and those individuals guilty of corruption were denied a safe haven.

Ministers agreed that corruption undermined economic performance, weakened democratic institutions and the rule of law, disrupted social order, destroyed public trust and provided an environment for organised crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish. As it is one of the largest barriers to APEC's road to free trade, to increase economic development and to greater prosperity, Ministers reaffirmed that they would continue to look for avenues to effectively address this important issue within APEC as well as in other fora.

Ministers welcomed the outcomes of the APEC Anti-Corruption and Transparency Symposium (ACT Symposium) and urged greater action to combat corruption and to improve transparency. They applauded Korea for hosting the ACT Symposium and commended the APEC Anti-Corruption and Transparency (ACT) Task Force for beginning its important work. Ministers stressed the importance of capacity building programs and encouraged member economies to develop and submit capacity building projects in support of APEC works in transparency as well as in anti-corruption.

Ministers encouraged all APEC member economies to take all appropriate steps towards effective ratification and implementation, where appropriate, of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). Ministers encouraged relevant APEC member economies to make the UNCAC a major priority. They urged all member economies to submit brief annual progress reports to the ACT Task Force on their APEC anti-corruption commitments, including a more concrete roadmap for accelerating the implementation and tracking progress. Ministers also encouraged the ACT Task Force to continue closer coordination with the APEC CTI and all other relevant APEC sub-fora.

Ministers welcomed the anti-corruption pledge that would be made by CEOs at this year's APEC CEO Summit and encouraged continued collaboration between the APEC ACT Task Force and ABAC. Ministers welcomed the private sector's call for a synergistic collaboration with the ACT Task Force to improve corporate governance and seek to strengthen this important public-private partnership. Ministers pledged to intensify regional cooperation to deny a safe haven to officials and individuals guilty of corruption, and encouraged greater cooperation in the areas of mutual legal assistance, where appropriate, extradition, asset recovery, and forfeiture of the proceeds of corruption. Accordingly, Ministers supported greater cooperation and information exchange among member economies as well as the sharing of expertise and experiences and supported capacity building on the denial of a safe haven, the UNCAC implementation, anti-bribery best practices, anti-corruption and SMEs, and other relevant areas including those as recommended in the ACT Course of Action (COA).

Ministers agreed to continue APEC's collective efforts to promote good governance, integrity, and transparency, as they were indispensable to APEC members' aspirations for a more secure and prosperous community in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Ministers reiterated the importance of fulfilling the APEC Transparency Standards and the area-specific Transparency Standards. They welcomed the first comprehensive submission of IAP reports on the implementation of Transparency Standards, as formulated at APEC Los Cabos and Bangkok Leaders' Meeting in the Leaders' Statement to Implement Transparency Standards.

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.

1. Counter Terrorism and Secure Trade

Ministers reiterated that terrorism was a serious threat to the security, stability and growth of the APEC region. They continued to review the progress on APEC's commitments to dismantle transnational terrorist groups, to eliminate the danger posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems and related items, as well as to confront other direct threats to the security of our region in the future. Ministers encouraged APEC economies to continue to develop new initiatives in these areas, and to implement existing commitments to eliminate the danger of terrorism and secure trade unilaterally, bilaterally, multilaterally and in APEC, building on the comparative strengths of APEC.

They applauded the improved counter-terrorism coordination measures adopted by APEC within its own fora as well as other international counter-terrorism action groups. Ministers highlighted the benefits to human security of the APEC Counter Terrorism Action Plans (CTAP) in identifying capacity and gaps in regional security frameworks. Ministers looked forward to sharing the results of the APEC CTAP Cross-Analysis with relevant donor bodies. Ministers reiterated their resolve to securing trade in the APEC region. They welcomed the outcomes of the 3rd Secure Trade in the APEC Region (STAR III) Conference in Incheon in February, and looked forward to the 4th STAR Conference (STAR IV) in Viet Nam. They stressed the need for enhancing public-private partnerships to strengthen cooperation in combating terrorism and stressed the importance of building business confidence by working closely with private sectors and publicising information on measures taken to secure trade. In this connection, Ministers welcomed Singapore's initiative to host a symposium on Total Supply Chain Security in 2006.

Ministers recognised the need to further facilitate secure trade, to reduce public health hazards and to reduce the threat of economic disruption through incidents related to radioactive materials, and applauded the agreement of relevant APEC economies to aim at implementing the International Atomic Energy Agency Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources as well as the Guidance on the Import and Export of Radioactive Sources by the end of 2006. Ministers underscored the efforts to mitigate the threat of Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) to civil aviation and welcomed the agreement by all APEC economies to undertake a MANPADS Vulnerability Assessment at international airports by the end of 2006. Mitigating the threat of MANPADS attacks and enhancing the security of civil aviation in APEC would ensure the continued flow of people and services for business and tourism.

Ministers commended the significant progress made by the CTI Informal Experts' Group on Business Mobility to secure people in transit, including the development of improved standards for border control and enhanced immigration services.

Ministers thanked Australia and the United States for the report on the start of the pilot Regional Movement Alert List (RMAL), which is an important step in fighting terrorism in the region. They welcomed the expansion of the pilot RMAL to New Zealand in the near future. Ministers noted the supporting progress in developing a Multilateral Legal Framework for those economies choosing to join RMAL and in examining legal issues associated with accessing lost and stolen passport data and instructed Officials to progress this work in 2006. Ministers instructed officials to advance an APEC initiative on capacity building for machine readable travel documents and biometrics technology to enhance regional security. They also called for further cooperation to ensure that all APEC member economies issue machine-readable travel documents, if possible, with biometric information by the end of 2008. Ministers thanked Korea for raising the awareness on international conduct standards for Immigration Liaison Officers (ILO) and best practices of Regional Immigration Liaison Officer Cooperation.

Ministers confirmed their agreement to voluntarily begin providing information on lost and stolen travel documents to the existing database of the International Criminal and Police Organisation (ICPO) on a best endeavours basis by the end of 2006.

Ministers instructed Officials to advance an APEC initiative on capacity building for machine readable travel documents and biometrics technology to enhance regional security, and they encouraged the development of capacity building initiatives for developing economies to achieve this goal.

Ministers reiterated their common understanding that APEC needed to continue building capacities and stressed that appropriate capacity building activities and best practices should be identified and made available to developing economies for the implementation of security measures. They commended the additional APEC work this year to help enhance security and welcomed, in particular, the following capacity building and implementation actions undertaken by APEC economies this year:

• Steps to advance compliance with the International Maritime Organisation's International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code through cooperative capacity building efforts and by encouraging follow-up visits to Viet Nam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Peru and Papua New Guinea to enhance the work already completed;
  
  
• Continued work in APEC to develop effective export control systems, such as Japan's export control survey on APEC Key Elements for Effective Export Control Systems and the efforts this year by individual economies to offer voluntary capacity-building on export controls;
  
  
• Commencement of the projects to strengthen the anti-money laundering regime in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines through the Asian Development Bank's Regional Trade and Financial Security Initiative, as well as the pending launch of four additional projects to combat terrorist financing and to strengthen maritime and civil aviation security;
  
  
• Delivery of a workshop on Airport Vulnerabilities and Counter Measures to APEC economies, as well as interested regional partners;
  
  
• Delivery of MANPADS Component Pocket Guides by the United States to all APEC economies to assist the detection and prevention of MANPADS smuggling;
  
  
• Progress on the STAR goal of 100 percent baggage screening for passengers, expected to be reached by the end of 2005; and
  
  
• Progress in implementing, concluding, or aiming to conclude an Additional Protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency, reflecting APEC's determination not to allow illicit nuclear activities in our region through the collective commitment to expanded transparency on nuclear-related activities. They welcomed the recent signing of the IAEA Additional Protocols by Singapore and Thailand as well as the Board approval of the Protocol with Malaysia, and encouraged relevant APEC economies to conclude such agreements on a priority basis. Assistance of other APEC economies to relevant non-signatory economies in this field is welcomed.

In implementing counter-terrorism commitments, Ministers noted the importance of minimising costs associated with cross-border business transactions. With this in mind, as APEC continues its progress on trade facilitation, economies will work to apply improved technology and procedures, and offer capacity-building to this end. Ministers affirmed their commitment to ensure that any measures taken to combat terrorism comply with all relevant obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee law and humanitarian law. Ministers welcomed the outcomes of the APEC Human Security Seminar co-hosted by Japan and Thailand in Tokyo in October.