Press Release 2007
APEC Symposium on Trade Facilitation 2007 opens today
Monday, June 4, 2007
The two-day (June 4 and 5) Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Symposium on Trade Facilitation 2007 opened today (June 4) at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
"Trade facilitation means reducing costs to business operating in and between markets. It requires all parties concerned, including the business sectors, regulators and government officials, working toward this shared goal," the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr Joseph W P Wong, said in his welcoming remarks.
Trade among APEC economies was significant and growing. Intra-APEC merchandise trade had more than doubled since 1994, from US$1.4 trillion to more than US$3 trillion. For Hong Kong, 80% of trade was with APEC members. It was entirely natural and fitting, therefore, that trade facilitation was one of the fundamental pillars of APEC's work, Mr Wong said.
The symposium provided a forum for dialogue between the public and private sectors, with a view to better matching trade facilitation measures with the needs of businesses, Mr Wong said.
"Transparency and consistency of customs procedures, harmonisation of industrial standards and conformance arrangements, ease of movement of business people, and appropriate application of technology in enhancing e-commerce are all important areas which we can work on to facilitate trade flows."
"The best known example may perhaps be the APEC Business Travel Card Scheme where cardholders can obtain entry visas to participating economies through one single application process and go through fast-track immigration lanes upon arrival," he said.
Mr Wong said shorter customs clearance times, reduced paperwork and alignment of standards were other examples of APEC's achievements in trade facilitation over the years.
During today's programmes, keynote speeches were given by Li & Fung Group Chairman Dr Victor Fung; President of Ryohin Keikaku Co. Ltd (parent company of Muji) Mr Tadamitsu Matsui; and the 2004 Nobel Laureate in Economics Prof Edward Prescott.
Dr Fung commented that rules of origin were one of the most important components of trade matters. To reflect current mode of production under globalisation, he urged that these rules be reformed to recognise the fact that increasingly more than one economy was involved in the manufacturing process of a product.
Mr Matsui noted that barriers to business operations between markets had been greatly reduced with the trade facilitation measures taken by APEC member economies. He praised the high standard of financial and logistic services, as well as swift customs clearance of Hong Kong where import procedures, container and discharge could usually be completed within 24 hours. Mr Matsui said Hong Kong was the highest profit market for Muji after Japan. To encourage trade among economies, he proposed trade facilitation measures including international standardisation on imports control, and simplification on imported food inspection procedure.
The Chairman of Hong Kong Committee for Pacific Economic Co-operation, Prof Edward Chen, said according to the study by the World Bank, trade facilitation could promote international trade by 10%. It would also benefit domestic economy, SMEs' business and employment. However, attention should be paid to individual situation of each economy when implemented and should be a voluntary participation.
Prof Prescott pointed out that APEC economies were a remarkable success story in the past 25 years because they had benefited from being open and economically integrated. By allowing foreign firms to operate in these economies, people living in the APEC region had been able to enjoy most of the benefits. Prof Prescott said Hong Kong had benefited most from rapid economic growth as a result of being an open economy.
Local speakers as well as their counterparts from other APEC member economies including Australia, Canada and New Zealand also shared their views and experience on helping small and medium enterprises in doing business.
APEC has 21 member economies - Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Republic of Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Republic of the Philippines; the Russian Federation; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States and Vietnam.
Full texts of the speeches, where available, will be uploaded to the Trade and Industry Department's website http://www.tid.gov.hk/english/trade_relations/tradefora/apec_symposium.html after June 4, 2007.
Ends