Trade in APEC seen to recover in 2016

Trade among Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies is expected to slowly recover in 2016, APEC Secretariat officials said here on Monday.

"Trade has contracted in 2015 and this major contraction is a reflection of the slow economic recovery," said Denis Hew, APEC Secretariat's director of policy support.

The foreseen recovery would be due to external demand and imports, particularly of developing countries among the 21 members of the APEC, he said.

The actions of the United States and China are particularly seen to affect this recovery. At the same time, he sees private consumption the main driver of APEC economies.

"Since the crisis, the responses have been more specific to private consumption," he said.

Alan Bollard, APEC Secretariat executive director, said the economies in the Pacific Rim are also concerned about the integration between manufacturing and services.

This year, APEC is focused on making the economies more inclusive to include small business, the services sector, environment and disaster recovery-related issues, he said.

Advancements in technology, particularly in E-commerce, will help micro, small and medium-sized enterprise to become part of the global value chain, Bollard said.

"Goods must move across the borders for small businesses, as well as larger business, as part of global value chains," he said.

Bollard noted that there are 150 FTAs in the region. "It is very complicated, but we will judge it by where they are going, if they are in conflict with each other, if it helps to integrate the region to move to the future," he said.

All these are part of the study on the Free Trade Agreement in Asia and Pacific, a major project of the formation, to be finalized next year, he added. Endit