Southeast Asia : Winning the War on Terror ?

ECONOMIC LEADERS FROM AROUND the world gathered in Hanoi, Vietnam for the 14 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in November of 2006. With this year’s theme of “Towards a Dynamic Community for Sustainable Development and Prosperity,” the APEC community strived to make clear its support for the Doha Development Agenda. In addition, the forum emphasized the need to protect human security around the globe, a goal that became dominated by a push for a tough response to North Korea’s nuclear program. APEC leaders announced that the failure of the Doha Round would have grave consequences for their economies as well as the multilateral trading system as a whole. The importance of transparent, consistent, and comprehensive Free Trade Agreements and Regional Trade agreements was repeatedly stressed, as the participants acknowledged that the growth of the Asia-Pacific region is drawing the economies and business environments of the countries closer together. Although the difficulty in practical negotiations for free trade in the Asia-Pacific region at this time were recognized, the Bogor goals were still affirmed for the year 2020. Separate from the pledge to renew global trade talks was a tough statement issued by APEC against North Korea’s nuclear testing This past November in Hanoi at the APEC summit of world leaders, several members pressed for the creation of a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific. As the annual summit drew to a close, world leaders agreed to further examine the prospect of a Pacific-wide free trade zone in a number of study groups. This article is excerpted from a longer paper by the same title that will appear in a book that will appear in 2007, published jointly by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) and the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC).