Achieving the Vision

o We recommend that APEC now adopt a comprehensive program to realize the vision of free and open trade in the region. At this year's meetings in Indonesia, Leaders and Ministers should:

-- adopt the long-term goal of "free and open trade and investment in the region";

-- aim to begin implementing the program of trade liberalization to achieve that goal by the year 2000; and

-- aim to complete the liberalization process by 2020, taking full account of the economic diversity of the region by having the more economically advanced members eliminate their barriers more quickly than the newly industrialized and developing members (pages 3-4).

o We recommend that APEC should vigorously pursue a trade facilitation and technical cooperation program that would emphasize in particular the following initiatives:

-- early adoption of a Concord on Investment Principles;

-- harmonization of national product standards and testing procedures or mutual recognition of each others standards;

-- cooperation on financial and macroeconomic issues;

-- cooperation on environmental issues;

-- creation of a task force to address the urgent problem of the proliferation of abusive antidumping practices;

-- creation of an APEC Dispute Mediation Service; and

-- technical cooperation with regard to public infrastructure, competent small and medium-scale enterprises, education and other human resources development.

The Global Trading System

o We recommend that APEC member economies proceed with their domestic ratification procedures for the UR as quickly as possible so that the WTO can be established and launch its activities at the earliest possible date.

o We recommend that APEC members that are not currently GATT members become Contracting Parties as soon as possible.

Trade and Investment Facilitation

o We recommend that the Leaders adopt an APEC Concord on Investment Principles when they meet in Indonesia in November.

o We recommend that APEC work toward:

-- adoption of an APEC Standards and Conformance Framework to guide progress on this range of issues;

-- identification of sectors where harmonization of standards could eliminate or reduce trade distortions, as a basis for developing proposals for each;

-- development of a model mutual recognition agreement among member governments that could provide the basis for acceptance of each others' standards, and of procedures for implementing that concept;

-- identification of sectors where early progress on mutual recognition would be most valuable and most feasible; and

-- acceptance of the conformity assessment principle "tested once, accepted everywhere," which will require mutual recognition of testing laboratories among APEC economies so that products need not be tested several times to gain acceptance in different national markets.

o We recommend that the APEC Finance Ministers use the occasion of the annual meetings of the IMF/World Bank and the ADB, when they come together in any event, for regular APEC consultations.

o We recommend that APEC members that have developed pro-environmental technologies share them with members that have not yet done so.

o We recommend that APEC members consider joint funding of environmentally sound development projects, with more advanced members contributing to the costs of pollution control in less advanced parts of the region.

o We recommend that APEC seek to advance international acceptance of the principle of internalization of the costs of environmental protection, notably through the most widespread possible adoption of the "polluter pays principle."

o We recommend the gradual convergence of environmental standards among APEC members, as part of the broader harmonization of product standards.

o We recommend that APEC create a separate task force on antidumping and restrictive business practices to address antidumping practices and the impact of national antitrust laws on international trade, with eventual expansion into the broader aspects of competition policy.

An APEC Dispute Mediation Service

o We recommend that APEC create a Dispute Mediation Service (DMS) that would provide assistance in resolving (and thus, over time, perhaps avoiding) economic disputes among its members.

Trade Liberalization

o We recommend that APEC advocate the maximum extent of further unilateral liberalization by all member economies.

o We recommend that APEC adopt a nonmutually exclusive four-part formula to implement its commitment to open regionalism:

-- the maximum possible extent of unilateral liberalization;

-- a commitment to continue reducing its barriers to nonmember countries while it liberalizes internally on an MFN basis;

-- a willingness to extend its regional liberalization to nonmembers on a mutually reciprocal basis; and

-- recognition that any individual APEC member can unilaterally extend its APEC liberalization to nonmember countries on a conditional or an unconditional basis.

o We recommend that APEC address all areas of economic exchange in its liberalization strategy.

o We recommend that APEC assure the GATT-consistency of its liberalization program by declaring its intention to dismantle its barriers on substantially all trade.

o We recommend setting a timetable for deciding and achieving free trade and investment in the Asia Pacific region. The three key dates are the decision date, the start date and the completion date.

o We recommend a three-way differentiation in the timetables. As a general rule, the more economically advanced economies should eliminate their barriers on the most rapid of the three schedules, perhaps in ten years. The NIEs should liberalize on an intermediate timetable, perhaps of 15 years. The developing member economies should aim to fulfill their obligations on the slowest schedule, say over twenty years.

o We recommend the APEC Leaders make a decision in Indonesia this year to launch the process with a commitment to the ultimate goal, of comprehensive free trade in the region, and set its start and completion dates:

-- APEC should aim to start implementing its liberalization by the year 2000; and

-- APEC should aim to complete the achievement of free trade in the region by 2020.

o We recommend that the APEC member economies as a group accelerate implementation of the commitments they have undertaken in the UR.

o We recommend that flexible implementation become a principle in carrying out APEC's liberalization commitments.

o We recommend that APEC adopt a safeguard mechanism that is both more comprehensive in its coverage and more rigorous in its criteria and procedures than is now embodied in GATT.

o We recommend that APEC monitor the evolution of the subregional arrangements within the area to promote their consistency with the region-wide process.

o We recommend that the subregional arrangements within APEC publicly indicate their willingness to equalize the margins of preference that their members now enjoy in trade with each other with their other APEC trading partners, and eventually eliminate these margins on an APEC-wide basis.

o We recommend that APEC adopt rules of origin that support free trade through simplicity, transparency and application across-the-board (i.e, without sectoral exceptions).

Technical Cooperation

o We recommend that a high priority on the APEC agenda be given to technical cooperation concerning infrastructure, competent SMEs, education and other human resources development, all of which complement market-driven integration and enhance the effects of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.