Regional Trade Agreement (APEC)
Introduction
Regional trade agreements are treaties involving several states that agree to offer themselves more favorable trade treatments than they do to other imported goods from other nations. Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an example of a regional trade agreement in the world. APEC has been of advantage to its members.
Australia has been enjoying free, and open investment with countries that occupy the Asia-pacific region. APEC has helped Australia create good trading relationships with its neighbors and other members of the APEC (Soesastro, 2016). Through APEC, Australia’s economy has strengthened with 70 percent of its trades being executed with APEC members. Free trade between APEC members has created a lot of job opportunities in Australia. Businesspeople in Australia have been able to export, and import goods free of charge, which has encouraged many individuals into the field of entrepreneurship. Since most of the APEC events are held in Australia, there is a lot of financial flow in the country.
APEC includes 21 states with over 2.8 billion people. After more than 25 years of operation, APEC has doubled its GDP from 16 trillion to 31 trillion (Soesastro, 2016). Due to the rise in APEC’s GDP, Australia has also been experiencing a massive boost in its economy. The gap of the poor to rich has significantly reduced in Australia.
After APEC launched the Ease of Doing Business Action Plan in 2009, Australia has been experiencing the start of new businesses, and application of construction companies (Smith, 2017). Also, after the consolidation of online import-export a process, marketing has been made easier. Many businesspeople do not have to struggle to look for ready markets of their products. The online initiative has benefited many Australian’s businessmen since you can identify what product is in high demand, and where they are required.
Through APEC, Australia has learned a lot from countries with a strong economy like the United States. Also, due to high interaction with different countries, Australia has strengthened its government hence becoming more efficient, and useful in implementing its policies.
APEC did not only promote free trade between Australia, and other countries covering the Asia Pacific region, but also participated in influencing WTO agenda to reach for an agreement with Australia. APEC played an essential role in attaining a successful conclusion of the GATT Uruguay Round. The success of the Uruguay Round of GATT established the World Trade Organization, and new rules based on the global trade system. APEC also facilitated the World Trade Organization Agreement on Information and technology. Absence of APEC lobby at the World Trade Organization Ministerial meeting, which was held in Seattle in 1999 made it harder to arrive at a conclusive outcome of the meeting, which showed the importance of APEC in WTO.
APEC has also affected by a group of people in Australia. APEC listens only to the interests of cooperates and responds to them appropriately (Smith, 2017). APEC tends to ignore small workers and farmers. APEC has been promoting resource exploitation and destruction of the environment. Australia has been creating a bad image with the Philippian community. Many Philippians have been demonstrating due to one of the Australian companies been granted rights to mine coal, which hurts human health.
In conclusion, APEC has contributed a lot to the economic growth of Australia. Free trade between APEC members has created a lot of job opportunities in Australia. The online initiative has benefited many Australian’s businessmen since you can identify what product is in high demand, and where they are required.
References
Soesastro, H. (2016). APEC: an ASEAN perspective. In From APEC to Xanadu: Creating a Viable Community in the Post-cold War Pacific (pp. 174-194). Routledge.
Smith, G. (2017). Designation Requirements for Australia.