I don't understand why so many people feel the need to protest at the APEC summit. It's a trade summit which is not in itself a bad thing. In fact many of the aims of the group are very admiral. The aims are to promote liberal trade, reduce corruption and set out guideline for greater transparency of Business operations. These are good things weather your in Australia, the US or any of the other countries in the Pacific rim.
The scope of the group as stated on their website is:
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) works in three broad areas to meet the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies.
Known as APEC's 'Three Pillars', APEC focuses on three key areas:
The outcomes of these three areas enable APEC Member Economies to strengthen their economies by pooling resources within the region and achieving efficiencies. Tangible benefits are also delivered to consumers in the APEC region through increased training and employment opportunities, greater choices in the marketplace, cheaper goods and services and improved access to international markets.
Trade and Investment Liberalisation
Trade and Investment Liberalisation reduces and eventually eliminates tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and investment. Protectionism is expensive because it raises prices for goods and services. Thus, Trade and Investment Liberation focuses on opening markets to increase trade and investment among economies, resulting in economic growth for APEC Member Economies and increased standard of living for all.
Business Facilitation
Business Facilitation focuses on reducing the costs of business transactions, improving access to trade information and aligning policy and business strategies to facilitate growth, and free and open trade. Essentially, Business Facilitation helps importers and exporters in Asia Pacific meet and conduct business more efficiently, thus reducing costs of production and leading to increased trade, cheaper goods and services and more employment opportunities due to an expanded economy.
Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH)
ECOTECH is dedicated to providing training and cooperation to build capacities in all APEC Member Economies to take advantage of global trade and the New Economy. This area builds capacity at the institutional and personal level to assist APEC Member Economies and its people gain the necessary skills to meet their economic potential.
None of this is evil or bad the are just trying to promote development and co-operation between the countries to benefit all of the countries involved.
Most of the protest don't seem to be aimed at APEC itself though. Most protests seem to be aimed at the president of the US. Fair enough his government has not been good for the US or many other places in the world, and it certainly hasn't been good for the international reputation of the US and it's citizens. Maybe we could leave these protest for another time though. A time when he's involved in something evil like taking over a small island nation.
Australians though have more pressing issues to protest about. We have issues that affect us directly such as the Industrial relations system that our government has brought in,he fact that this Australian Government has increased the Gap between rich and poor the highest levels ever and seems to ignore any way to rectify this, or the lack of any coherent and defined stance on climate change from the government.
John Howard has realised that he has left the issue of Climate change to long and now is trying to subvert important international events such as this APEC meeting to show how active he is on this issue. Quite rightly the Chinese President put him in his place and said that the UN was the best forum for anything more than an understanding that climate change is important.
So people please leave the APEC summit alone and concentrate on the problems facing and issues that directly affect the day to day happenings in this country. That way maybe the NSW government and police will not have the nessecary impetus to enact draconian laws and security measures.
I encourage everyone to take an interest in what is discussed in Forums such as APEC but please try not to hinder organisations that might actually do some good. There is already huge amounts of evidence that we need sustainable development in poorer countries to improve the living conditions of the people and take away to root causes of huge Social and Environmental problems.
The scope of the group as stated on their website is:
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) works in three broad areas to meet the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies.
Known as APEC's 'Three Pillars', APEC focuses on three key areas:
The outcomes of these three areas enable APEC Member Economies to strengthen their economies by pooling resources within the region and achieving efficiencies. Tangible benefits are also delivered to consumers in the APEC region through increased training and employment opportunities, greater choices in the marketplace, cheaper goods and services and improved access to international markets.
Trade and Investment Liberalisation
Trade and Investment Liberalisation reduces and eventually eliminates tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and investment. Protectionism is expensive because it raises prices for goods and services. Thus, Trade and Investment Liberation focuses on opening markets to increase trade and investment among economies, resulting in economic growth for APEC Member Economies and increased standard of living for all.
Business Facilitation
Business Facilitation focuses on reducing the costs of business transactions, improving access to trade information and aligning policy and business strategies to facilitate growth, and free and open trade. Essentially, Business Facilitation helps importers and exporters in Asia Pacific meet and conduct business more efficiently, thus reducing costs of production and leading to increased trade, cheaper goods and services and more employment opportunities due to an expanded economy.
Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH)
ECOTECH is dedicated to providing training and cooperation to build capacities in all APEC Member Economies to take advantage of global trade and the New Economy. This area builds capacity at the institutional and personal level to assist APEC Member Economies and its people gain the necessary skills to meet their economic potential.
None of this is evil or bad the are just trying to promote development and co-operation between the countries to benefit all of the countries involved.
Most of the protest don't seem to be aimed at APEC itself though. Most protests seem to be aimed at the president of the US. Fair enough his government has not been good for the US or many other places in the world, and it certainly hasn't been good for the international reputation of the US and it's citizens. Maybe we could leave these protest for another time though. A time when he's involved in something evil like taking over a small island nation.
Australians though have more pressing issues to protest about. We have issues that affect us directly such as the Industrial relations system that our government has brought in,he fact that this Australian Government has increased the Gap between rich and poor the highest levels ever and seems to ignore any way to rectify this, or the lack of any coherent and defined stance on climate change from the government.
John Howard has realised that he has left the issue of Climate change to long and now is trying to subvert important international events such as this APEC meeting to show how active he is on this issue. Quite rightly the Chinese President put him in his place and said that the UN was the best forum for anything more than an understanding that climate change is important.
So people please leave the APEC summit alone and concentrate on the problems facing and issues that directly affect the day to day happenings in this country. That way maybe the NSW government and police will not have the nessecary impetus to enact draconian laws and security measures.
I encourage everyone to take an interest in what is discussed in Forums such as APEC but please try not to hinder organisations that might actually do some good. There is already huge amounts of evidence that we need sustainable development in poorer countries to improve the living conditions of the people and take away to root causes of huge Social and Environmental problems.
1 comment:
Hi bro
I agree that many of the protests are missguided or opportuinistic but there are some because Apec often says one thing and does another.
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