APEC links RR with trade and green growth

There is a lot of conceptual material to be found in the proceedings of the 2011 APEC ministerial meeting held in Honolulu, Hawai, on 11 November and chaired by Ms Clinton. In a “Declaration of Honolulu – towards closer regional economic ties,” APEC Ministers committed to take action to strengthen economic integration and expand trade, promote green growth and advance regulatory convergence and cooperation, to achieve economic growth in the region. The statement published on the APEC site and the annex F on regulatory issues provide rich reading. Here are the main chapters (our unofficial summary):

• "Regulatory Cooperation on Emerging Standards and Regulatory Issues for green growth": the objective is to prevent unnecessary technical barriers to trade, support interoperable emerging standards for smart grids, green buildings, and solar technologies.
• Approval of a "Regulatory Cooperation Action Plan" to inter alia improve the efficiency and effectiveness of regulations, build public trust in regulations, improve consumer confidence in globally traded products and encourage implementation of the APEC-OECD Integrated Checklist on Regulatory Reform;
• Regulatory Convergence: streamlining approval procedures for Medical Products , harmonised classification of Chemicals, cataloguing regulations on Services, reducing unnecessary testing and streamlining paperwork on Wine certification and trade procedures, raising common Food Safety rules, including closer alignment on international standards (with APEC-World Bank collaboration).

In summary, a fine example of effective regional regulatory cooperation.