APEC Priorities for 2019 Discussed at Think Tank

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum won't happen until November, but a panel of a State Department envoy, a former Office of the U.S. Trade Representative negotiator, Singapore's ambassador and Google's head of global trade policy talked about what might be accomplished there during a Feb. 5 panel.

All agreed that the fact that APEC initiatives are voluntary and non-binding is a feature, not a bug. Matthew Matthews, the U.S. ambassador to APEC, said that fact allows officials from the APEC countries to think creatively about ways to enhance trade and to take risks. He said if they weren't non-binding, APEC's ambitions to advance initiatives would diminish.

Wendy Cutler, a former USTR official who was the lead negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- now in force with many APEC members -- noted that back in 2011, all the countries agreed to lower their tariffs on environmental goods to 5 percent or lower.

One of the focuses this year will be digital trade. David Weller, Google's head of global trade policy, said a strong digital trade regime can help turn around the trade backlash that has intensified in the last few years. He said that those who question the value of deals like NAFTA and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement believe that it's only big companies benefiting from trade. "Digital tools are allowing SMEs to punch well beyond their weight," he said, using shorthand for small and medium-sized enterprises. He said that on eBay, more than 90 percent of sellers are exporters, while fewer than 10 percent of small companies export when they aren't selling through an online platform.

De minimis levels affect small exporters disproportionately, and that has been on the agenda at APEC, though no progress has been made in years. Monica Hardy Whaley, president of the National Center for APEC, said de minimis has been talked about for a long time at APEC, and there was an APEC Alliance for Supply Chain Connectivity that worked on the issue, too.

Back in 2011, when the U.S. was hosting the APEC conference, and therefore setting the agenda, increasing de minimis to "commercially useful values" (see 11052415) was discussed. Ten of the countries later agreed to set de minimis of at least $100 (see 12010432).

William Reinsch, moderator of the panel at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, noted that countries have diverse approaches to de minimis "in ways that make things more complicated." He said it can be controversial domestically, including in Canada, which is an APEC member.