NZIBF’s submission to MFAT on the New Zealand UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Negotiations.
APEC 21 – BEATING COVID ONE ZOOM AT A TIME
The ABAC NZ Team
The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) is preparing to discuss its Annual Report with APEC Economic Leaders.
Nothing like a pandemic to upset lives and livelihoods, and also disrupt this year’s hosting of APEC by New Zealand. Gone is the “barbecue at our place” and instead the year has been one long Zoom. For the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) over 80 online meetings have replaced four three-day meetings normally held in far-flung locations around the Asia Pacific region.
Disrupted year
The pandemic has also highlighted significant differences between the APEC membership. How best can APEC respond to the health crisis for example, and how to move to safe and seamless border re-opening – that has been particularly challenging, given the varied stages of the outbreak and as vaccines are only now becoming more readily available across the region.
Clearly not everyone is in the same boat when it comes to Covid, but surely, we are all on the same sea. As ABAC’s 63 Members make clear in their annual Report to APEC Economic Leaders, the pandemic response needs to be global, and it needs to be co-ordinated. Getting everyone vaccinated as quickly as possible is key to overcoming the health crisis, enabling borders to re-open when circumstances permit, and restarting the engines of growth.
Getting everyone vaccinated as quickly as possible is key to overcoming the health crisis, enabling borders to re-open when circumstances permit, and restarting the engines of growth.
ABAC’s theme for 2021 has been ‘People, Place and Prosperity’ or ‘Tāngata, Taiao me te Taurikura’. Putting people (ngā tāngata) first is the top priority, but the challenges do not end there. Moving forward in respect for the environment (te taiao) and advancing prosperity (te taurikua) in ways that are not just sustainable, but also inclusive were also top of mind.
ABAC’s final report contains 43 separate recommendations across the five pillars of ABAC’s work this year in the areas of Regional Economic Integration; Sustainability; Inclusion; Digital; and the Economy.
To foster the wellbeing of our people, ABAC has called for capacity-building and structural reform to empower smaller businesses, women and Indigenous communities. ABAC Chair Rachel Taulelei led an initiative this year to bring together 90 indigenous business leaders from eight APEC economies – their statement of priorities is included in ABAC’s Report to Leaders. Achieving a digitally-enhanced, trade-friendly and sustainable APEC food system is also foundational for the health and welfare of the region’s people.
To safeguard the place in which we live, ABAC believes a concern for sustainability must drive all of APEC’s activity. A set of Climate Leadership Principles for Business was developed under the leadership of ABAC NZ Member Malcolm Johns, along with a companion framework for trade and investment in renewable energy. Both are means of galvanizing further climate ambition on the part of APEC economies, as COP26 gets underway.
To foster prosperity, APEC has an opportunity to show leadership by championing a credible and relevant World Trade Organisation (WTO) in the lead up to November’s WTO Ministerial Conference. Building towards the eventual Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) on the foundation of agreements like CPTPP and RCEP remains a key goal.
There is likewise an urgent need to realise the potential of the digital economy, as work led by ABAC NZ’s Anna Curzon showed, through upgrading skills, investing in infrastructure and enabling more seamless, interoperable digital trade.
On 12 November ABAC Members will sit down – virtually of course – with the APEC Leaders themselves to discuss the ideas contained in the report. ABAC will emphasise that the world is more deeply interconnected than ever before and while the challenges we face are profound, they are also shared. That idea of an APEC ‘community’ is fundamental to APEC’s Putrajaya Vision 2040 which was adopted last year. A Vision Implementation Plan is set to be adopted at this year’s Leaders’ meeting. ABAC has repeated consistently that the region cannot wait twenty more years to achieve the Vision’s ambitious goals. The time for action is now.
Not all of ABAC’s recommendations are likely to please and not all will be accepted, even in in a pandemic year when leadership is needed most. ABAC after all has been waiting since 2004 for FTAAP to be implemented! Rachel Taulelei put it best when she compared the work of ABAC to “that great pounamu stone at Te Pāpā that is slowly worn down by people’s hands rubbing the surface, as ABAC’s words do across the agenda of APEC. Eventually the beauty shows through”.
This post was prepared by Stephen Jacobi, Executive Director of NZIBF and ABAC 2021. NZIBF provides policy advice and executive support to the New Zealand members of ABAC. This blog is an abridged version of an article which earlier appeared in the NZ Herald here (paywall).
REGISTER WITH TRADE WORKS
Register to stay up to date with latest news, as well as saving and discussing articles you’re interested in.
Latest News
SUBMISSION TO THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE – APRIL 2024
NEW ZEALAND-UAE COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT NEGOTIATIONS This submission is made on behalf of the New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF), whose members are listed at Annex A[1]. NZIBF is a forum of senior business leaders working together...
NEW TEAM FOR AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND LEADERSHIP FORUM
Media release, 2 April 2024 The New Zealand Co-Chair of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF), Greg Lowe, welcomes the appointment of Stephen Jacobi and Simon Le Quesne to the New Zealand arm of the ANZLF Secretariat. The ANZLF brings business leaders,...
NZ/EU FTA A BONUS FOR SOME SECTORS – BUSINESS FORUM
Media release, 22 March 2024 The NZ International Business Forum (NZIBF) acknowledges the passage of the implementing legislation for the New Zealand/European Union Free Trade Agreement and looks forward to the FTA’s entry into force on 1 May. “This agreement was...
“MEAGRE OUTCOME” FROM WTO IN ABU DHABI – BUSINESS FORUM
Media release, 2 March 2024 Despite its overwhelming importance at the heart of the international trade system, members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have concluded their Ministerial in Abu Dhabi (“MC13”) with only a meagre outcome. NZ International Business...
To go or woe with the WTO?
We’ve been here before with the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The global trade body’s 13th Ministerial meeting (“MC13”) opens in Abu Dhabi on Monday 26 February, with Trade Minister McClay serving as Vice-Chair. In recent weeks diplomats, trade...
DCANZ – Agricultural Subsidy Distortions Must Be Addressed
23 February 2024 - Media Release by the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ) As the world’s Trade Ministers head to a WTO meeting in Abu Dhabi, the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ) is calling for an immediate capping of agricultural...
Asia-Pacific business leaders call for greater economic dynamism with people at the center of the APEC agenda
16 February 2024 - APEC NEWS RELEASE Issued by The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), meeting this week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, expressed deep concerns about the growing pressures of economic fragmentation and the risks...
SUBMISSION TO THE PARLIAMENTARY FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE AND TRADE COMMITTEE – FEBRUARY 2024
NEW ZEALAND EUROPEAN UNION FREE TRADE AGREEMENT LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL Introduction and Summary This submission is made on behalf of the New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF) and Export NZ. NZIBF is a forum of senior business leaders working...
ABAC Statement on WTO MC13 – February 2024
Now, more than ever, the world needs a credible, relevant, and effective multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core. In this era of global challenges, the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) recognizes that the WTO is...
Global Industry Statement on the WTO Moratorium on Customs Duties on Electronic Transmissions
NZIBF has joined 170 international business associations in calling for an extension to the current moratorium on tariffs applying to digital services (like Netflix) at the forthcoming WTO Ministerial meeting. The undersigned associations urge WTO members to support...
Resilient supply chains: Yesterday, today and tomorrow
Published by the Hinrich Foundation, Singapore, 23 August 2024 By Stephen Jacobi History has much to teach us about the way trade contributes to prosperity through the movement of goods, services, people, and ideas. Today, data can be added to this web of...
SUBMISSION TO THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE
GENERAL REVIEW OF THE COMPREHENSIVE AND PROGRESSIVE AGREEMENT FOR TRANS- PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (CPTPP) DECEMBER 2023 Summary This submission is made on behalf of the New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF). As individual NZIBF Members may make their own...
Todd McClay – your trade mission, should you choose to accept it …
As published by Newsroom 19 December 2023 By Stephen Jacobi “Twas the week before Christmas, When all through the house Not a creature was stirring, Except busy trade officials … ‘Tis the season to be “BiM-ing”* and the NZ International Business Forum has sent its...
2023 – Steps forward and back
Trade liberalisation moved forward and backward in 2023. Some notable gains have been achieved for New Zealand, but war, geo-political rivalry and global inflation continue to depress global markets. While the pandemic continued to lurk in the shadows, 2023 was the...
NZIBF releases Brief to the Incoming Minister of Trade
DECEMBER 2023...