How does apec work

Trade and Investment Liberalization. APEC members take actions to reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and investment that boosts job creation, incomes and growth. Business Facilitation. The forum adapts to allow members to deal with important new challenges to the region's economic well-being. This includes ensuring disaster resilience, planning for pandemics, and addressing terrorism.

APEC operates as a cooperative, multilateral economic and trade forum. Member economies participate on the basis of open dialogue and respect for views of all participants. In APEC, all economies have an equal say and decision-making is reached by consensus. There are no binding commitments or treaty obligations. Commitments are undertaken on a voluntary basis and capacity building projects help members implement APEC initiatives. APEC's structure is based on both a "bottom-up" and "top-down" approach.

For developing economies, APEC provides additional benefits in areas such as the development of procedures, policy frameworks and systems to deal with contemporary issues. These issues range from transparency and governance to financial sector reform and customs procedures.

There are numerous APEC forums, working group meetings and seminars throughout the year in which representatives from developing economies have the opportunity to learn new skills and best practices from other economies.

Developing economies also have the opportunity to help set APEC's agenda and have as much say as some of the largest economies in the world. For businesses from APEC member economies, the most obvious benefits are the reduction in barriers and impediments to trade across borders. In a moratorium on membership was put in place for a ten-year period. At the end of the moratorium was extended to APEC is not a donor organisation. These contributions are used to fund a Secretariat in Singapore and various projects which support APEC's economic and trade goals.

APEC economies also account for over 44 percent of total world trade. Staff employed directly by the Secretariat fulfil specialist and support functions. The Secretariat is headed by an Executive Director. These positions range from secretarial and support positions to specialist positions ranging from information technology, to document management and communications.