The 21st Conference of Trade Ministers of the APEC was held in Boracay Philippines,on May 23-24, 2015. The Vice-Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen and the Chinese Ambassador in the WTO Yu Jianhua attended the conference. The participants discussed issues such as supporting the multilateral trade system, strengthening the regional economic integration and the small and medium-sized enterprises’ participating in the global market, and published The Presidential Statement of the Conference of Trade Ministers, the Separate Statement of Supporting the Multilateral Trade System of the APEC Trade Ministers and the Boracay Program of Action of the Globalization of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.
This Conference of Trade Ministers actively implemented the important decisions and measures of the conferences of leaders of Beijing in 2014, approved the Working Outline of the Joint Strategic Research of the APFTA, the Strategic Framework and the Working Mechanism of the cooperative network of the demonstration E-port of the Asia-Pacific, the Operation Mechanism and the Working Plan of the database of the trade added value of the global value chain and made a positive and practical progress.
Wang said that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the WTO and the 10th ministerial conference will be held at the end of this year. At this critical moment, the APEC should uphold the fine tradition and continue to show the strong determination to support the multilateral trade mechanism to the outside world. China emphasized that efforts should be made to find a feasible and balanced plan, to actively promote to reach the working plan of the “Post-Bali” by the end of July, to push forward the important results obtained at the the 10th ministerial conference of the WTO at the end of this year, to accelerate promoting the full implementation of a package agreements of Bali and to strive to bring the Agreement of Trade Facilitation into effect.
Wang proposed that promoting to realize the APFTA is an important topic of the APEC cooperation at present and efforts should be made to conduct the joint strategic research and guarantee to submit the research report and the reasonable policy suggestions to the leaders. Meanwhile, the joint strategic research should widely absorb the opinions of the relevant parties including the business circles and research institutions and reflect the open and inclusive features of the APFTA.
Wang said that the “Belt and Road Initiative” proposed by China reflects the concept of the inclusive and common development and will promote the interconnectivity cooperation of the APEC. The practical cooperation actively proposed and promoted by China such as the Asia-Pacific demonstration E-port network and green supply chain network will promote the development of the Asia-Pacific trade interconnectivity.
Wang said that the Boracay Program of Action of the Globalization of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises proposed by the Philippines is conducive to giving play to the vitality of the small and medium-sized enterprises and strengthening their capabilities to participate in the global market. He hoped that the practical cooperation on the database of the small and medium-sized enterprises and information exchange and sharing can be reinforced. E-commerce is a significant channel to promote the small and medium enterprises to participate in the international market and it is hoped that the small and medium-sized enterprises can be promoted to further benefit from the global value chain with the help of the e-commerce.
During the conference, Wang met with the Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry of the Philippines Gregory Domingo, the Secretary-General of the WTO Roberto Azevedo and the heads of the delegations of New Zealand, Indonesia and the Republic of Korea.
