Toward a free trade area of the Asia Pacific

Abstract

At their latest annual summit in Vietnam in November 2006, the leaders of the 21 members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum launched a process that could ultimately produce the largest single act of trade liberalization in history. They agreed to “seriously consider” negotiating a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) and instructed their officials to “undertake further studies on ways and means to promote” the initiative so that they could address it at their next summit in Australia in September 2007.