Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum

APEC (/ˈeɪpɛk/ AY-pek Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation) is a multilateral forum created in 1989, in order to consolidate the growth and prosperity of the countries around the Pacific Ocean, which deals with issues related to trade, economic coordination and cooperation among its members..

As a mechanism for economic cooperation and coordination, it is aimed at promoting and facilitating trade, investment, economic and technical cooperation, and regional economic development of the countries and territories of the Pacific Ocean basin. Fostering inclusive, equitable, sustainable and innovative economic growth.

The sum of the Gross National Product of the twenty-one economies that make up APEC is equivalent to 56% of world production, while together they represent 46% of global trade.

APEC does not have a formal treaty. Its decisions are made by consensus and it works based on non-binding declarations. It has a General Secretariat, based in Singapore, which is in charge of technical support and consulting. Every year one of the member countries is host to the APEC annual meeting. The 30th summit was held in November 2018 in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

History

In November 1989, in pursuit of more effective economic cooperation throughout the Pacific Rim region, the first APEC meeting was concluded, chaired by Australia's Foreign Office, Gareth Evans. With the political ministers of twelve countries in attendance, the meeting concluded with commitments for future annual meetings.

The initial proposal was rejected which instead proposed the East Asia Economic Conclave in which non-Asian countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand would be excluded. The plan was strongly criticized by Japan and the United States.

The first meeting of APEC leaders occurred in 1993, when US President Bill Clinton, after talks with Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, invited the heads of government of member economies to a summit on Blake Island. He believed this would help get the stalled Uruguay Round of trade negotiations back on track.

At the meeting, they called for the continued reduction of barriers to trade and investment in member countries, envisioning a community in the Asia-Pacific region in the future, which could promote prosperity through economic, political and trade cooperation. The Singapore-based APEC Secretariat was established to coordinate activities Bogor, Indonesia, APEC Leaders adopted the "Bogor Goals," which aim for free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region in 2010 for industrialized economies and in 2020 for developing economies. In 1995, APEC created a business advisory body called the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), made up of three business executives from each member economy. The APEC member countries organize meetings of presidents and businessmen, to promote trade and economic integration between the member countries, where businessmen recognized throughout the world such as Bill Gates are invited to give talks at the events that are organized, conference business and presentations to the press. The permanent Secretariat is in Singapore, APEC brings together the most important and dynamic economies of the Pacific Rim countries, it is a platform to promote international economic relations agreements.

Member countries

APEC countries	Year of access
Australia	1989
BrunéiBrunéi	1989
CanadaCanada	1989
IndonesiaIndonesia	1989
JapanJapan	1989
South KoreaSouth Korea	1989
MalaysiaMalaysia	1989
New ZealandNew Zealand	1989
PhilippinesPhilippines	1989
SingaporeSingapore	1989
Thailand	1989
United States	1989
ChinaChina	1991
Republic of China	1991
Hong Kong	1991
Mexico	1993
Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea	1993
ChileChile	1994
Peru Peru	1998
Russia	1998
VietnamVietnam	1998

Potential Members

Current members.Countries interested in joining.

India has applied for APEC membership and received initial support from the United States, Japan and Australia. The authorities have decided not to allow India to join, for various reasons, including the geopolitical imbalance it could create in the forum. However, the decision was postponed to admit more members until 2010. On the other hand, India does not have borders in the Pacific, like the rest of the members, which raises questions about the geographical scope of the forum.

They are also among a dozen countries that wanted to join APEC in 2008. Colombia applied to join APEC as early as 1995, but a decision on its application was delayed as the organization stopped accepting new members from 1993 to 1996, and the moratorium was extended again to 2007 due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Guam has also been actively seeking separate membership, citing the example of Hong Kong, but the request is rejected by the United States, which currently represents Guam. APEC is one of the few international organizations in which Taiwan was allowed to join, albeit under the name of China.

APEC Annual Meetings

Mandates at the sixteenth meeting of the APEC held in Santiago de Chile in 2004.

Official photo of the APEC Forum in Lima, in 2008.

Between 1989 and 1992, the APEC Forum held informal ministerial-level meetings annually. However, at the request of the then President of the United States Bill Clinton, as of 1993 it was established as a practice that the annual meeting included the leaders (Heads of State) of the member countries.

Year	Date	Country	Place	Host	Official page
1989	6-7 November 1989	Australia	Canberra	Bob Hawke
1990	29-31 July 1990	SingaporeSingapore	Singapore	Lee Kuan Yew
1991	12-14 November 1991	South KoreaSouth Korea	Seoul	Roh Tae-woo
1992	10-11 September 1992	Thailand	Bangkok	Anand Panyarachun
1993	19-20 November 1993	United States	Seattle	Bill Clinton
1994	15-16 November 1994	IndonesiaIndonesia	Bogor	Suharto
1995	18-19 November 1995	JapanJapan	Osaka	Tomiichi Murayama
1996	24-25 November 1996	PhilippinesPhilippines	Manila	Fidel Ramos
1997	24-25 November 1997	CanadaCanada	Vancouver	Jean Chrétien
1998	17-18 November 1998	MalaysiaMalaysia	Kuala Lumpur	Mahathir Mohamad
1999	12-13 September 1999	New ZealandNew Zealand	Auckland	Jenny Shipley
2000	15-16 November 2000	BrunéiBrunéi	Brunéi	Hassanal Bolkiah
2001	20-21 October 2001	ChinaChina	Shanghai	Jiang Zemin
2002	26-27 October 2002	Mexico Mexico	Cabo San Lucas	Vicente Fox
2003	20-21 October 2003	Thailand	Bangkok	Thaksin Shinawatra
2004	20-21 November 2004	ChileChile	Santiago	Ricardo Lagos
2005	18-19 November 2005	South KoreaSouth Korea	Busan	Roh Moo-hyun
2006	18-19 November 2006	VietnamVietnam	Hanoi	Nguy/25070/n Minh Triκt	APEC 2006
2007	8-9 September 2007	Australia	Sydney	John Howard
2008	22-23 November 2008	Peru Peru	Lima	Alan García	APEC 2008
2009	14-15 November 2009	SingaporeSingapore	Singapore	Lee Hsien Loong
2010	13-14 November 2010	JapanJapan	Yokohama	Naoto Kan
2011	12-13 November 2011	United States	Honolulu	Barack Obama	APEC 2011
2012	9-10 September 2012	Russia Russia	Russki Island, Vladivostok	Vladimir Putin	APEC 2012
2013	5-7 October 2013	IndonesiaIndonesia	Bali	Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono	APEC 2013
2014	10-11 November 2014	ChinaChina	Beijing	Xi Jinping	APEC 2014
2015	18-19 November 2015	PhilippinesPhilippines	Cebu	Benigno Aquinas III
2016	19-20 November 2016	Peru Peru	Lima	Pedro Pablo Kuczynski	APEC 2016
2017	10-11 November 2017	VietnamVietnam	Da Nang	Trąn Đmadi Quang
2018	17-18 November 2018	Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea	Port Moresby	Peter O'Neill
2019	16-17 November 2019 (canceled)	ChileChile	Santiago de Chile	Sebastián Piñera
2020	20 November 2020	MalaysiaMalaysia	Kuala Lumpur (Virtually realized)	Muhyiddin Yassin
2021	12 November 2021	New ZealandNew Zealand	Auckland (realized virtually)	Jacinda Ardern
2022		Thailand	Bangkok	Prayut Chan-o-cha