PACIFIC BASIN ECONOMIC COUNCIL
UNITED STATES MEMBER COMMITTEE | EVENTS | U.S. EVENTS | APEC PREVIEW LUNCHEON

APEC Preview Luncheon Outlook for APEC in Shanghai Thursday, September 27, 2001 Institute for International Economics 1750 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington DC The PBEC US Member Committee gathered a broad audience on September 27 for its annual "APEC Preview Luncheon." This year featured speakers included His Excellency Yang Jiechi, Ambassador of the Peoples Republic China, and Fred Bergsten, Director of the Institute for International Economics, and former chair of the APEC Eminent Persons Group (1993 - 95). Motorola and Archer Daniels Midland generously sponsored the event. In his speech to PBEC US members and other business leaders, diplomats and government officials, Ambassador Yang congratulated PBEC for its tradition of promoting open markets and "helping to develop a common vision for prosperity among Pacific Basin economies." Addressing China' s priorities for APEC this year, Ambassador Yang set out three core objectives: promoting trade and investment and facilitating the "establishment of a more reasonable multilateral trading system"; capacity building and opening new opportunities for all to benefit from globalization; and creating a favorable macro environment for sustainable development in the region. He noted that APEC provides an important and unique venue in the context of declining economic growth, and he assured the audience that the Shanghai meetings will "contribute to restoring confidence in the world economy." Following his speech, Ambassador Yang responded to PBEC members questions. On the continuing concerns regarding protection of patents, software and other forms of intellectual property, Ambassador Yang stated that China is committed to actively protect the rights of intellectual property owners, noting that doing so was in China's interest in order to stimulate creativity and technology development in China. In his remarks, Fred Bergsten outlined three significant "deliverables" that could come out of the APEC meetings in Shanghai: Capacity building: agreement to establish an APEC finance institute to train bankers, regulators, auditors, etc. and thereby strengthen the human resource base essential for effective financial systems in the region; New economy: a focused push for policy reforms in telecommunications, financial services, competition policy and so forth which, when taken together, "provide a hospitable, indeed fertile environment within which new economy techniques can flourish"; and Expanding markets: stimulate the launch of a new WTO trade round by reaching agreement within APEC on major substantive issues, and using this consensus as the basis for forceful APEC leadership in the WTO meeting in Doha; this would follow the 1996 model when Leaders within APEC reached agreement on elimination of tariffs in the information technology sector and used this as the basis to galvanize a global Information Technology Agreement at the WTO Ministerial meeting in Singapore. APEC Ministers and Leaders meet in Shanghai October 17 - 21. PBEC members from throughout the region are intensely interested in the outcome.