Highlights from the Bogor Report 2010

The year 2010 was a milestone for APEC, since it was the target year of Bogor Goals for the industrialized economies. Below are highlights from the full report prepared by the APEC Policy Support Unit - Progressing towards the APEC Bogor Goals [external link].

Trade and investment barriers have fallen

• The average MFN-applied tariff across the APEC region fell from 16.9% in 1989 to 6.6% in 2008. Average tariffs were 3.9% for the five industrialized economies and 6.4% for the eight volunteering economies, compared to the WTO world average of 10.4% in 2008.
• Zero-tariff product lines as a percentage of all lines in the APEC region rose to 40% in 2008 from 29% in 1996. The percentage of imports covered by zero-tariff lines increased from 34% to 57% over this period.
• Non-tariff barriers were also substantially reduced across the APEC economies, with most of those reported being WTO-consistent.
• Progress has been made to remove barriers on trade in services and investment, with the industrialized economies leading the way. Many APEC economies have made further commitments to liberalizing their services market through revised offers to the WTO. In addition, industrialized members and other APEC members also use RTAs, FTAs, BITs and unilateral domestic measures to expand liberalization beyond WTO commitments.

Positive efforts in trade and investment liberalization and facilitation

• APEC economies had signed 111 RTA/FTAs as of December 2009, 43 of which were intra-APEC agreements. 94 of these RTA/FTAs were in force as of December 2009, 37 of them being intra-APEC agreements.
• APEC has been at the forefront in pursuing trade facilitation. A 5% reduction in trade transaction costs between 2002 and 2006 was reported from APEC’s first Trade Facilitation Action Plan (TFAP). Recent calculations to assess the progress in TFAP II, estimate that trade transaction costs decreased 1.7% in the period 2007-2008, which represents savings for APEC member economies equivalent to USD 14 billion.
• A preliminary study of APEC’s Investment Facilitation Action Plan (IFAP) indicates that APEC economies made progress in terms of investment facilitation between 2005 and 2009.

Trade and investment flows have increased

• APEC’s trade in goods with the world increased 7.1% per year since 1994 for both exports and imports, reaching USD5.6 trillion in exports and USD5.8 trillion in imports in 2009. Intra-APEC trade in goods nearly tripled in value over this period.
• Exports of goods and services made up 26.5% of GDP for economies in 2008 compared to 15.7% in 1994. For the APEC-industrialized economies, exports as a share of GDP grew from 11.1% to 16.3%; whilst for the APEC-volunteering economies, the export share went up from 46% to 70.2%. Imports of goods and services increased to 27.4% as a share of GDP in 2008 from 15.9% in 1994. This share grew from 11.5% to 19.7% in the APEC-industrialized economies and from 48.4% to 68.9% in the APEC-volunteering economies.
• FDI inflows to the APEC region increased four-fold from 1994 to 2008, growing 13% per year and reaching nearly USD791 billion in 2008. FDI outflows from APEC economies also increased at 13% per year over this period, reaching a peak of USD782 billion in 2008.

APEC's economic growth outperformed global outcomes

• Real GDP in the APEC region grew by 54% between 1994 and 2008, contributing 62% of world growth over this period. Real GDP per capita in the APEC region increased 37% from 1994 to 2008, outperforming the rest of the world.
• APEC’s employed labor force increased by 14% between 1996 and 2007.
• Unemployment in the region steadily declined between 2003 and 2007. For the industrialized APEC economies, the unemployment rate declined to 4.5% in 2007, falling below the level in 1996.

Social outcomes have improved

• Poverty in the APEC region has fallen substantially. In 1994, 34.3% of the population in the APEC region was living on less than USD1.25 per day. By 2007, this share had dropped to just over 12%, or 324 million people. Similarly, in 1994, nearly 52% of the population in the APEC region was living on less than USD2 per day. By 2007, this proportion had fallen to 27%, or 718 million people.
• Life expectancy at birth across the APEC region rose to 74 years in 2008, with life expectancy in the industrialized APEC economies rising to nearly 80 years. Infant mortality has also fallen considerably in the APEC region – from 29 deaths per 1000 live births in 1995 to 16 in 2008.
• Adult literacy in the APEC region increased to almost 94% in 2008 from 82% in 1990. Large gains were also made in secondary schooling, with the gross enrolment ratio increasing to 82% in 2008 from 56% in 1990.
• Access to improved sanitation facilities and drinking water had improved across the APEC region from 1995 to 2008. In 2008, 74% of the APEC population, or 1.9 billion people, had access to improved sanitation facilities and 91%, or 2.4 billion people, had access to improved drinking water.
• APEC as a region outperforms the world average in six dimensions of governance and is especially strong in government effectiveness and regulatory quality.

Environmental outcomes are mixed

• Environmental production efficiency has steadily improved in the region – from 0.66 kilograms of CO2 emissions per unit of GDP in 1994 to 0.55 kilograms in 2007. But emissions per capita have increased across APEC.

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