Although Apec has as its long term goal a free trade area encompassing both sides of the Pacific by 2020, this has been complicated by the proliferation of trade agreements between member countries that are some times detrimental to non-members. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
ASIA-PACIFIC economies are now more regionally integrated than in 1990, a think tank examining developments in the region has found.
Of the individual economies that are part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan top the list of a new index measuring an economy's links to the region.
Giant hat offers warm welcome at Apec summit
LIMA - PERU is staging one of its biggest summits in memory and has come up with a keepsake - a giant stocking cap.
Around a dozen people with disabilities weaved what is billed as the world's biggest chullo, the wool cap from the Andes that has turned into a global youth fashion symbol.
The report was made public by the Pacific-Economic Cooperation Council on Nov 17, ahead of the Apec Leaders summit taking place this weekend.
Apec ministers gathered at Lima's National Museum on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss, among other things, how the grouping can support a successful conclusion of the stalled Doha trade talks and foster further regional economic integration.
On Wednesday, the report's co-author, Mr Yuen Pau Woo, who is based in Canada, told the media here that Apec, which will head into its 20th year next year, can 'take some satisfaction'' in the result.
Although Apec has as its long term goal a free trade area encompassing both sides of the Pacific by 2020, this has been complicated by the proliferation of trade agreements between member countries that are some times detrimental to non-members.
The think tank, the only non-governmental organisation affiliated to 21-member forum, knocked some of Apec's ideals, in particular, its belief that trade barriers will be lowered unilaterally and that countries which do deals with each other will not hurt the interests of others.
'Concerted unilateral liberalisation' and 'open regionalism'' have turned out to be largely empty slogans, said the report's authors, lamenting the slow pace of Asia-Pacific-wide efforts to liberalise trade and investment flows.
The index measures an economy's links with the region over a 15-year period. It uses among other things, its trade and investment flows within the region, compared with their economic relations to the rest of the world.
A composite index measures the integration of Apec as a whole over time.
It showed that integration increased up to 2001, when the dot.com bubble burst. The index stayed the same until 2004 and 2005, when it went up again.
One important feature: the index excludes trade and investment flows within sub-regional groupings such as the North American Free Trade Area and the Asean Free Trade Agreement.
A study of individual economies showed that the least integrated are Indonesia, China and the United States. Economies which upped its connection to the region the most were Hong Kong, New Zealand, Vietnam, Canada and Australia.
Singapore, while remaining at No. 2, actually slipped in terms of scores on the index, showing that it was less integrated with the region now than in 1990.
The report's authors said that intepretation of the index should be done cautiously as those with low rankings may be oriented globally rather than regionally.
Nevertheless, the change in index for an economy over time can be read as a measure of its changing economic orientation. The index value for the group, they said, can also be seen as a measure of Apec's success.
'The very least one can say is that the Apec project - in its broadest ambition - has not been in vain.'
