APEP Declaration Calls for WTO Trade Facilitation Implementation
The U.S. already has free trade agreements with most of the dozen countries in the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP), however, the nations want to strengthen regional economic integration.
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"We ask Ministers to immediately focus on enhancing regional integration by advancing implementation of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation and digitization of customs mechanisms throughout the region," the group's joint declaration said. "We further ask Ministers to conduct a gap analysis to identify regulatory actions needed to enhance regional integration and develop mechanisms, actions, and information-sharing tools to ensure that the benefits of trade are more widely shared with micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises and historically underrepresented communities."
The declaration also said the countries want to foster "shared prosperity and good governance."
A Biden administration official, speaking on a background call on APEP, said Latin America has not been able to benefit as much as it could from nearshoring due to "political and regulatory risk factors, I think, a lack of human capital, poor infrastructure. I think, fundamentally, we want to actually use the Americas Partnership to really promote a shared economic agenda to address some of these challenges."
The declaration called on "the Ministers responsible for trade to develop inclusive and sustainable approaches to trade and investment that will support regional sustainable development and resilient supply chains for goods and services, enhance a predictable and transparent regulatory environment that can boost trade flows, and remove barriers to greater economic integration among our countries." It said it expects "these efforts to reflect our values and create formal jobs that lead to decent work and promote internationally recognized labor rights, environmental sustainability, and economic inclusion."