APEC: Assessing progress towards the Bogor goals

Abstract

Over 30 years, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation has evolved from an informal consultative dialogue into a leading inter-economy forum for promoting open trade and investment, business facilitation, as well as economic and technical cooperation. The number of APEC economies has increased, the agenda has expanded significantly to include, for example, environmental issues, digitalization, and social aspects of regulation. At the same time, in the institutional sphere, the forum has preserved the principle of consensus in decision-making, as well as the voluntary nature of commitments made by participants and the lack of mechanisms to enforce them. There is not much research on the overall results of APEC’s activities, especially on quantitative assessments of sectoral performance. The article provides an overview of international studies analyzing the forum’s achievement in different areas, including the “Bogor Goals” of trade and investment liberalization in the region. In addition, the authors conducted their own quantitative evaluation of APEC’s sectoral performance based on I. Yamazawa’s methodology and developed proposals for improving the methodology. The assessments have shown that APEC has been very successful in promoting the Bogor Goals, though the economies still have not achieved full liberalization of trade and investment in the region by 2020 deadline. Nevertheless, APEC continues its work to promote trade globalization, share regulatory experiences and best practices, harmonize standards, and improve connectivity in the region.