HCM CITY – APEC’s Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI) yesterday continued its two-day meeting in HCM City.

Marie Sherylyn D Aquia, chair of the CTI, told Việt Nam News: “We continue to have discussions so we can have some very good deliverables for the November meeting. So we had a discussion on free trade facilitation in the Asia-Pacific. We also had discussions on trade facilitation.”

“APEC is very supportive of the WTO, so we are trying to have economies implement their commitment under the trade facilitation agreement. We had discussions on digital trade and also services -- which is a very important issue they are discussing in the CTI -- because services are an important component of our economies.”

At the meeting, the CTI sub-committees and groups, including the sub-committees on standards and conformance and customs procedures, automative dialogue, intellectual property rights experts’ group, life sciences innovation forum, group on services and business mobility group, have been submitting reports on their activities.

Officials from the 21 member-economies also shared their points of view about regional economic integration, speaking about Bogor goals and the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP).

Next generation trade and investment issues were also discussed.

Talking about the Vietnamese initiatives during conferences and meetings, Aquia said: “They are trying to come to an agreement on e-commerce facilitation; that is a good contribution from Việt Nam.”

Julio Chan, APEC director, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Peru, said: “We discussed many topics and many of them achieved important results. These will be soon submitted to SOM.”

“I highly appreciate Vietnamese initiatives as they will help create convenient conditions to promote trade and integration in APEC. The initiatives also contributed much to APEC’s long-term target of establishing FTAAP.”

The CTI was established in 1993 with APEC leaders and ministers directing its work ad senior officials providing guidance.

The scope of its work was expanded and further clarified by the Osaka Action Agenda in 1995.

The CTI provides a forum for APEC’s 21 member economies to deliberate trade and policy issues. It works to reduce impediments to business activity in the areas outlined by the Osaka Action Agenda with the objective of helping APEC economies achieve free and open trade and investment. VNS