APEC: Truths and Consequences
Tony Tsai

History

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation was established in 1989 to promote greater economic development and common markets in the growing Asia-Pacific economies. Currently there are 18 member economies striving to create a "free trade" zone in the Asia-Pacific region. Despite this year's financial crisis in the region, the 18 member economics still represent some of the fastest growing economies in the world. The Gross Domestic Product of the combined 18 member states is over US $ 16 trillion and represents 44% of global trade.

The eighteen member states are comprised of countries in Asia and those that line the Pacific Rim. These include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, The Peoples' Republic of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the USA. India, Vietnam, and Russia are also considering membership into APEC and have already been invited to the next summit as observers.

The APEC Agenda

The three pillars of APEC activities are centered on the development of "1) trade and investment liberalization, 2) business facilitation and 3) economic-technical cooperation." In order to do this, the APEC leaders have promised to focus on these six areas of economic-technical cooperation: developing human capital; "fostering safe and efficient capital markets; strengthening economic infrastructure; harnessing technologies of the future; promoting environmentally sustainable growth; and encouraging the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises."

The APEC leaders have also set as their goal to create free and open trade and investment in the region by 2010 for industrialized nations and 2020 for developing economies.

Subsequent meetings have addressed issues of economic development and looked at key areas to focus on in order to ensure a successful Asia Pacific free trade region.

The last summit was held at the UBC campus in British Columbia, amidst a furry of controversy. (See APEC Timeline, this issue.) The summit also marks the first official recognition for the development of the APEC fora, a small group of NGO (Non-government organizations) and parallel lobby groups who were invited to speak at the summit. The APEC leaders applauded the APEC Fora for involving "business, academics, and other experts, women and youth in 1997".

The APEC leaders also praised the initiative "to involve youth throughout APEC's activities in 1997 as continued prosperity in the region will depend on APEC's ability to vest the next generation of leaders of the region with the skills and knowledge they require." Obviously the concept of irony was not completely lost on the APEC leaders.

Criticism on the APEC Agenda

Though these activities seem to be beneficial to the entire Asia Pacific region, the APEC agenda has come under heavy criticism for it's lack of focus on human rights and pampering of business interests. As Joan Spero of the US Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs states, " APEC is not for governments, it is for business. Through APEC we aim to get government out of the way, opening the way for business to do business."

APEC and Human Rights

APEC has been notorious of ignoring the track record of human rights violations by many of its member states, such as China, Indonesia, and Chile. The APEC position is that through the development of its member economies and standards of livings, social climates will stabilize thereby eliminating the occurrences of previous human rights violations. In essence, it is hoped that economic change will bring about social change. Though such beliefs are not without their merits, there still seems to be a definite lack of focus on improving the human rights of certain member states without focusing on the economics.

Little surprise considering that two of the most notorious human rights violators (China and Indonesia) also represent two of the world fastest growing economies, with billions of dollars being invested into these economies by foreign interests. This economic clout has allowed these countries to silence the criticisms of foreign countries (such as Canada) on issues of human rights in exchange for better access to their booming economies. APEC's position on human rights can be best summed by a quote from Raymond Chan, Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific), "discussion of human rights and social development might impede progress on economic and trade issues."

APEC and Poverty

Another criticism of APEC initiatives is that they are based on economic models that are detrimental to the poor. Many of the APEC economies are still considered to be developing nations with the majority of their population living close to the poverty line. Critics charge that the APEC initiatives "forcibly open the resources of developing economies to the manipulation of imperialist states and transnational conglomerates".

Critics fear that the rapid industrialization of developing economies into export markets will lead to reduced social spending, transferal of social services to private sectors, heavier taxes, and an increase of prices in prime commodities. The changes will occur at a rate where the social and economic conditions of general public have not had time to prepare them for these changes. Thus the poor will continue to become poorer, intensifying social stratification and disintegration.

APEC and Labour Rights

Already, there have been startling examples of labour rights violations in many of the developing APEC member states. Countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines have long operating with minimal labour laws. Workers in those countries have been subject to sweatshop like working conditions, poor safety standards, and next to nothing minimum wages.

The fear is that APEC initiatives will do very little to alleviate these low standards, or even worse, encouraging them as APEC member countries take advantage of the low wages and production costs of their developing neighbors through APEC's unilateral free trade agreements.

APEC and the Environment

Though part of the APEC initiative is to create environmentally sustainable growth in the region, there does not yet exist a functional forum to address the environmental impact of the trade treaties. Many of APEC's developing have very few environmental regulations and rate as some of the most polluted environments in the world.

This isn't to say that the developed nations in APEC are any better at instituting environmental projectionist policies. And the damage is expected to continue as economic development accelerates at a break neck speed.

As economies begin to remove tariffs and trade barriers, multinational corporations are being enormously subsidized by not having to account for the environmental costs they are incurring in their host countries. Natural resource markets are quickly being opened as member countries use them as quick cash cows as lower tariffs reduce market prices and increase worldwide demand.

Sources:

Official APEC Website
APEC ALERT