The 2012
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit was held on 8–9 September in Vladivostok, the Russian
Far East. Russia hosted 21
member countries at the summit and in various side events throughout 2012, which attracted over 10 000 visitors in total. The preparation costs for 2012 APEC were estimated to be A
$21 billion. By comparison, the Australian Government spent just over
$300 million hosting the 2007 APEC summit in Sydney, of which over $170 million was invested in
enhanced security.
APEC economies account for 44 per cent of world trade and 56 per cent of global economic output
($39 trillion in 2011), and comprise a total of 2.7 billion people. Major areas under 2012 APEC summit discussion included: ongoing negotiations towards the
Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, next generation trade and investment issues, education, food security, innovation and supply chains, and environmental goods. One landmark decision was an
agreement to cut tariffs from as much as 35 per cent to 5 per cent or less by 2015 on
selected environmental goods. The
Leaders’ declaration includes the list of
environmental goods, such as solar panels, gas turbines and industrial machinery.
The Federal Minister for Trade, Dr Craig Emerson,
hailed the 2012 APEC meeting as a
success. Australia helped in brokering the deal on tariff cuts, which, according to Trade Minister Emerson, ‘opens up tremendous opportunities for Australian producers’. He
wrote that ‘Australia can be proud of co-founding APEC. It is proving the workhorse of regional integration as we seek to seize the opportunities of the Asian Century’. He
added that the deal on university education and student mobility is ‘about the cultural understanding, the great opportunities that kids have and never forget for the rest of their lives, to be able to study in each other’s universities and know each other’s countries’.
Dr Christopher Ziguras from RMIT University
noted that the declaration reinforced the growing strategic shift in Australian government policy towards viewing the region as a place for Australian students to travel and study in, rather than just as a lucrative source of international students.
The APEC Economic Policy Report is available
here. Documents relating to the 2012 APEC summit and further resources on the Pacific Rim from the Russian Presidential Library are available
here. The
2013 APEC summit will be hosted by the
Indonesian Government in Bali.