by Chris Dalby
LIMA, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Participants in the just-concluded Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting highlighted the fight against protectionist sentiments by reshaping the future of free trade as an inclusive one.
Playing host to the 2016 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said that protectionist sentiments may have arisen as a "reflection of difficult economic conditions."
These factors will have to be reckoned with if any progress is to be made for the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP). All 21 APEC members agreed on advancing the talks under a dedicated committee.
This realignment of globalization was immediately apparent in the many aspects of improved governance the APEC leaders discussed, including an increase in global connectivity, helping SMEs integrate into the global value chains, food security and better access to financing.
CONNECTIVITY
The topic of connectivity had an engaging ambassador in the presence of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who called on APEC members to bring their citizens online and finally see their GDP growth explode.
"In order to do all these things, we first have to connect people ... We need to make connectivity and connectivity infrastructure a much higher priority on each of our agendas," he said Saturday.
Listing availability, affordability and awareness as three major challenges to connectivity, Zuckerberg said governments had more to do to invest in infrastructure and recognize that connectivity is the path to achieving any goals they might have.
The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) also encouraged the leaders to close the connectivity gap, stating only "43 percent of the world's population is connected to the Internet," leaving 4.2 billion people without such convenience.
SMES
MSMEs (micro, small and medium-enterprises), which power the majority of job creation and economic growth in developing economies, tend to be left aside.
Peruvian Second Vice President Mercedes Araoz said this week that APEC would adopt concrete measures to boost the development of MSMEs and help them to enter into the global supply chains.
In this year's APEC Lima Declaration, the leaders agreed that "strengthening of MSMEs will imply concrete progress in increasing their innovation capacities and competitiveness, including intellectual property rights commercialization, work towards guaranteeing access to financial means and capacity building, enhancing their participation in the Internet and digital economy and through electronic commerce."
Specific initiatives saw progress, including a report on better participation in global value chains and the Cross-Border E-Commerce Training (CBET) program. Overseen by the Wenzhou-Kean University in China, the CBET has already trained thousands of SMEs in the APEC region in numerous aspects of e-commerce and will continue to prove crucial to inclusion efforts.
FOOD SECURITY
The Lima Declaration also promised to "further promote sustainable agriculture, food, forest management, fisheries and aquaculture, enhance food markets, integrate food producers into domestic and global food supply and value chains."
Removing tariffs for foodstuffs is a slow process, given the variety of produce, production techniques or chemicals used, as well as the need to unify sanitary regulations.
For the ABAC, ensuring food security would go a long way toward having an "inclusive, healthy and integrated regional economy."
"Practical measures...to enhance the productivity of the rural sector, including through new technologies to reduce food waste and loss and better infrastructure, are also important," read the ABAC recommendations.
SERVICES
Part of the economic upgrading of the APEC region is to help its members diversify their export baskets and key industries, a crucial step to make free trade inclusive. The result was the launch of the APEC Services Competitiveness Roadmap (2016-2025), which will open up access to services markets, increase the share of services exports for APEC economies, boost the share of services within APEC's total GDP to above the global average by 2025.
The APEC week came to a close with a mood of optimism that all these points contributing to more inclusiveness could be advanced forward, so as to make the benefits of globalization clear and available to all, whether in FTAAP negotiations or actions at the level of individual economies.
