APEC Study Centers Consortium 2011 : Promoting Academic Dialogue Among the APEC Economies APEC Update

1 The annual APEC Study Centers Consortium (ASCC) conference convened on September 22-23, 2011, in San Francisco, California, with Vinod Aggarwal of the Berkeley APEC Study Center and Richard Feinberg of the UC San Diego APEC Study Center co-chairing the conference. Within the context of the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) III, the ASCC 2011 conference brought together scholars from 19 of the 21 APEC member economies as well as scholars from Colombia and Brazil. Of the approximately 75 scholars who attended the conference, 29 presented papers on three core themes of APEC’s agenda for 2011: green growth, regulatory convergence, and trade and regional economic integration. Eight panels discussed the papers, after which an open discussion followed. At a final session, the co-chairs offered a “sense of the meeting” (not claiming a full consensus with every point) with regard to the three themes, which was accepted by the participants. They then presented their conclusions and policy recommendations to the SOM III as a formal agenda item. This exchange between ASCC and APEC senior officials fulfills a APEC Study Centers Consortium 2011: Promoting Academic Dialogue Among the APEC Economies