As the leading economic forum in the Asia-Pacific, APEC has delivered substantial gains for businesses and consumers alike in Australia and throughout the region. APEC is pursuing an ambitious agenda of trade liberalisation, business facilitation, economic cooperation and technical assistance. The private sector engages closely with the APEC process, particularly through the APEC Business Advisory Council.

Indonesia is the current APEC host, with China to take over the role in 2014 and the Philippines in 2015.

• APEC's goal is to achieve free and open trade and investment in the region by 2020.
• Since 1989, average applied tariffs in the APEC region have fallen from 16.9 to 5.8 per cent.
• Eight of Australia's 10 largest export markets are within APEC, including our top three export markets – China, Japan and Korea.
• APEC has 21 member economies which account for 47 per cent of world trade and 71 per cent of Australia's total trade.

For more information on APEC: www.apec.org

• Previous page
• Trade at a Glance 2013
• Next page