Issued by the APEC Secretariat
Hong Kong, China, 13 Jan 2014 - “We are now seeing a shift toward domestic demand-driven growth and an increase in services trade as opposed to
predominantly trade-driven growth that focused on manufactured and processed goods that occurred in region over the last
three decades,” explained Dr Alan Bollard when he delivered a keynote speech in Hong Kong, China on Monday.
Dr Bollard, the APEC Secretariat’s Executive Director, made this assessment when delivering remarks on the changing
patterns of trade and investment influencing growth in the Asia-Pacific and the way trade moves across economies through
new initiatives at the border and across the border at the Asian Financial Forum where he addressed members of the
global financial and business community.
These changing growth patterns, coupled with the increasingly complex way goods and services move across borders, from
e-commerce to value-added supply chains, are impacting the economic environment and the way APEC addresses cross-border
trade.
“Most production used to be “made-here/sold-there” and was vertically integrated within large firms,” said Dr Bollard.
“Rules of origin and value-added were simple concepts.”
“But today, we are seeing an increase in intermediate goods, intra-industry trade and supply chains, which use border
transactions more aggressively and help SMEs to globalise,” he continued. “As a result, rules of origin and value added
are much more complex.”
For example, the Apple iPhone supply chain is a complicated web that extends throughout the Asia-Pacific region. With
research, development and design in the United States to chip manufacturing in Malaysia, fingerprint sensors fabricated
in Chinese Taipei and inductor coils made in Japan, the Apple iPhone eventually ends up in China for final assembly.
In response to this web of cross-border movement and subsequent increased intra-APEC trade, APEC’s Supply Chain
Connectivity initiative streamlines border regulations so supplier components can seamlessly move across regional
boundaries.
“Today, efficient borders are recognised as a source of competitive advantage,” explained Dr Bollard. “APEC members are
working toward reducing the red tape and heavy policing that slows down goods getting across borders.”
“Increasingly border regulation in APEC member economies is being streamlined through single window, harmonised,
contracted operations.”
However, as borders become more open, criminal and undesirable movements can take advantage. As a result, APEC is
working on new technologies and international arrangements to help deter this.
“As APEC innovates new initiatives to accelerate economic integration in the Asia-Pacific, we are moving toward
frontiers of the future and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), as envisioned by APEC Economic Leaders,”
concluded Dr Bollard.
“We will always have international borders, but we can ensure they are configured to promote trade and regional
prosperity.”
ENDS