APEC economies work for more transparent, participatory trade negotiations

The workshop on Strengthening Transparency and Participation in the Process of Negotiation of Trade Agreements of the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI) was held within the framework of the third APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting.

Delegates from APEC member economies debated trade under public scrutiny and proposed measures to overcome challenges to more transparent and participatory negotiations of trade agreements. 

They noted that there is a lack of policies in some countries to ensure the engagement of the civil society, private sector and other stakeholders who want to be part of the process, explaining that trade is becoming nearer to each citizen of both developing and developed economies.

Felipe Lopeandia from the Directorate General of International Economic Relations of Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said to get into the civil society, technical contents of trade agreements should be understandable because they are related to citizens. 

“It is important that citizens can understand fully what have been negotiated in trade agreements,” he told the Vietnam News Agency’s reporters. 

During the workshop, government officials from Chile, Australia and New Zealand shared their countries’ experience in negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement.