ASEAN and APEC: Complementing, not Competing
ASEAN Secretariat, 11 November 2009
Regional architectures seem to be the flavour of the past couple of months in ASEAN. The recent 15th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Thailand, would perhaps, on reflection, be known for the twin proposals on new regional architectures floated by Japan and Australia.
Japan had proposed building, in the long run, an East Asian community based on the principle of openness, transparency and inclusiveness, and functional cooperation, while Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia proposed an Asia Pacific community in which ASEAN will be its core.
Lest we forget, we have be reminded that twenty years ago, when another regional framework, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum was established, it also had ASEAN as a core.
“The region is dynamic and always in search of a new platform to face new challenges and bring itself to new heights,” noted the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, on the eve of his departure for the series of APEC meetings taking place in Singapore this week.
APEC had its origins in 1989 as an informal Ministerial-level dialogue group with 12 members. But it did not prove to be an easy birth. The then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir Mohamad was in 1990 at the forefront of the purely Asia-based East Asia Economic Caucus proposal encompassing only ASEAN, China, Japan and Republic of Korea. However, Australia wanted a regional framework that included Australia and the United States. Indonesian President Soeharto's support for a pan-Pacific head of government structure was crucial and the APEC leaders' meeting was born when in 1993, former United States President, Mr Bill Clinton, established the practice of an annual APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. It was at Blake Island, in the US, that APEC Economic Leaders met for the first time and outlined APEC's vision: "stability, security and prosperity for our peoples".
And a year later in 1994, APEC set the Bogor Goals of "free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies". In a sense, the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) can be said to be a building block for the fulfilment of the goals that APEC set for – eventual free trade among its members, which in turn is part of the global effort to bring down barriers to international trade.
ASEAN has been liberalising and promoting trade in goods, trade in services, and the flow of investments, creating a free trade area and one investment area. It is further streamlining the administration of customs and tariffs and harmonising product standards. It is also developing and facilitating road and rail transport and opening up air services to increased competition. It is keen on developing information and communications technology and promoting its use.
Hence, ASEAN’s purposes are entirely consistent with those of APEC’s in the areas where they overlap. Indeed, ASEAN has been at APEC’s core from the very beginning. In all of this, ASEAN is doing its part to advance APEC’s purposes. As a force behind the founding of APEC, ASEAN is committed to do so.
“ASEAN had a role in the genesis of APEC or at the very least the idea of encouraging the idea of APEC,” added Dr Surin.
Today, APEC involves cooperation among 21 member economies across Asia and the Pacific, with nearly half of the world trade value and a population of more than two billion. Meanwhile, ASEAN comprises 10 Member States, with a combined population of more than 583 million. Intra-ASEAN trade is 25 percent of ASEAN’s total trade of 1.6 trillion US dollars.
But as many of the economic aims cannot be met adequately within regional cooperation groups consisting of only developing economies, there is a clear advantage of APEC embracing both developing and developed economies. In fact, Thailand, the current ASEAN Chair, has stressed the need for APEC and ASEAN to be taken together as part and parcel of the broader regional and global economic landscape.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva recently said that the two organisations could be seen as complementing, and not competing with, each other, and that ASEAN and APEC could reinforce one another in their effort to achieve the common goals of free trade and non-protectionism. They could also help each other provide their peoples with a social safety net, food security, a cleaner environment, and a crime-free society.
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