The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is the result of a call by Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke in January 1989 for Asian-Pacific economies to consult on how they could effectively cooperate and increase trade and investment flows in the Asia-Pacific. Australia’s motive was to create an Asia-Pacific economic identity, of which it would be an integral part. Japan endorsed the Australian proposal and became the second driving force in the creation of APEC. The first APEC meeting of trade and foreign ministers took place in Canberra in November of 1989 (with twelve attendees: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the U.S.).
A summit or Leaders’ Meeting has become an annual event since President Clinton invited leaders to Blake Island in 1993. The first APEC Leaders’ Meeting was held in Seattle in November 1993. This first Leaders’ Meeting of economies represented half the world’s population and 56% of its GNP. A year later all APEC leaders met at Bogor, Indonesia, and at that meeting the Leaders resolved to move to free trade and investment by 2010 for industrialized member economies, and by 2020 for developing member economies. The 1995 meetings were in Osaka, Japan where the Osaka Action Agenda was agreed to, setting out a template for future APEC work towards common goals. The Philippines convened the APEC Leaders’ Meeting in 1996 at Subic Bay. The Leaders’ Meeting was held in Vancouver, Canada in 1997 at the Museum of Anthropology on the University of British Columbia campus.
The following 21 countries are members of APEC as of 2022: Australia, Brunei, Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam.
APEC has three standing committees, one steering committee, and a few other forums that report to the Senior Officials Meeting. The three committees are the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), the Economic Committee (EC), the Budget and Management Committee (BMC). The Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE) has 14 working groups: Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Group (ATCWG), Anti-Corruption and Transparency Experts’ Working Group (ACWG)
Emergency Preparedness Working Group (EPWG), Energy Working Group (EWG), Experts Group on Illegal Logging and Associated Trade (EGILAT), Health Working Group (HWG), Human Resource Development Working Group (HRDWG), Oceans and Fisheries Working Group (OFWG), Policy Partnership on Science, Technology and Innovation (PPSTI), Policy Partnership for Women and the Economy (PPWE), Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG), Telecommunications and Information Working Group (TELWG), Tourism Working Group (TWG), and Transportation Working Group (TPTWG). The CTI deals with trade and investment liberalization and business facilitation concerns. The role of the EC continues to evolve. It is primarily responsible for providing the Senior Officials Meeting with information and analysis on broad, crosscutting issues which are not easily handled by one of the working groups.
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