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APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Busan, Republic of Korea
(Overview and Evaluation)

November 25, 2005

I. Overview of the meeting

The APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting was held in Busan, Republic of Korea on November 18-19, 2005. The meeting was chaired by President Roh Moo Hyun of the Republic of Korea and attended by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan, President George W. Bush of the United States, President Hu Jintao of the People's Republic of China, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation and other leaders of the APEC economies.

On November 19, the Leader's Declaration and a stand-alone Statement on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) Negotiations were adopted and the APEC Initiative on Preparing for and Mitigating an Influenza Pandemic was announced.

Furthermore, Japan received support from the leaders for hosting the APEC meetings in 2010.

The following is an overview of the discussions.

1. Economic issues (afternoon of November 18)

(1) Leaders agreed that political leadership was essential to move the struggling WTO negotiations forward and ensure the success of the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong next month, and adopted a stand-alone Statement on DDA Negotiations.

Prime Minister Koizumi stated that Japan intended to work toward the success of the DDA negotiations so as to achieve an overall outcome beneficial to all of the APEC economies. Furthermore many Leaders highly praised the offer by the United States to reduce domestic subsidies in the agricultural sector and noted that it was important to advance free trade further from the perspective of the development of developing members.
(2) Leaders highly praised the Report of the Mid-term Stocktake of Progress towards the Bogor Goals which evaluates progress by APEC to date and outlines the roadmap that need to be taken in the future to complete them, and endorsed the Busan Roadmap to the Bogor Goals.

Prime Minister Koizumi stated that Japan would work towards achievement of the Bogor Goals and noted the importance of the protection of intellectual property rights and ensuring transparency. Many Leaders noted that APEC should continue to work toward achievement of the Bogor Goals through the trade and investment liberalization and facilitation and enhancement of capacity building.
(3) Leaders noted that it was important that FTAs be promoted as means that complement the WTO and they welcomed the progress of work on the APEC Trade Facilitation Model Measures.
(4) Concerning economic polarization, some Leaders noted that the gap between the rich and the poor was widening within their economies and some noted that, in order to bridge this gap, capacity building and expansion of the social safety net were necessary.

2. Human security (morning of November 19)

(1) Concerning infectious diseases, based on their common recognition that avian influenza was a real and current threat, the Leaders agreed the necessity of international cooperation on responses such as rapid response measures and adopted "the APEC Initiative on Preparing for and Mitigating an Influenza Pandemic".

Prime Minister Koizumi informed the meeting that the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Action Plan of Japanese Government had been formulated by the Government of Japan on November 14 and stated that Japan would continue to provide a full range of international cooperation in this area. The Leaders welcomed the APEC initiative and noted the necessity of the transparency and sharing of information and the importance of cooperation with respect to medicines such as Tamiflu. Some Leaders also noted the necessity of income compensation for small business farmers for the disposal of domesticated fowls infected with avian influenza and other fowls that were close to them.
(2) Counter-terrorism and non-proliferation issue (including the regional situation)
(a) Security issues such as counter-terrorism and non-proliferation were reaffirmed as issues to be dealt within APEC and the Leaders welcomed the initiatives and activities of APEC in this area and agreed to continue to support them.
(b) The Leaders were united in their belief that no act of terrorism was justified and agreed to advance international cooperation in the counter-terrorism area including the sharing of information, border measures, and capacity building.

Prime Minister Koizumi also made a remark in which he stated the importance of fighting terrorism and other Leaders noted that, in addition to counter-terrorism measures, removal of the root causes of terrorism, such as poverty and a lack of education, and dialogue among religions and civilizations were important.
(c) Concerning the issue of North Korea, the announcement of the Leader's Declaration after the conclusion of the meeting, President Roh, the Chair, on behalf of APEC, stated the following: In addition, we discussed the matters concerning the political situation of the Korean Peninsula, and concurred as follows; We, the Leaders of the APEC economies, have welcomed the positive steps that have recently made in the Six-Party Talks to achieve verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We hope that such progress would contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in this region. Moreover, Leaders urged further substantial progress in the Six-Party Talks, in particular, the faithful implementation of the Joint Statement under the principle of "commitment for commitment, action for action", which was adopted at the 4th round of the Talks."
(3) Concerning energy, Leaders shared the recognition of the importance of the energy issue taking into account rising oil prices and made many remarks about the importance of alternative energy, new energy technologies and energy conservation.

Prime Minister Koizumi emphasized the importance of an environmentally-friendly society incorporating energy conservation, called for the promotion of the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) and stated the importance of the cooperation among economies including these that have not yet ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
(4) Concerning the fight against corruption, the Leaders welcomed that business leaders signed the ABAC Anti-corruption pledge at the APEC 2005 CEO Summit held on November 18th and shared the recognition that it was important to oppose corruption for sustainable economic growth.

3. Dialogue with ABAC (afternoon of November 18)

A dialogue between the APEC Leaders and the members of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) took place with the participants split into five groups and in the form of a question and answer session.

(Prime Minister Koizumi also held bilateral meetings with the leaders of the Republic of Korea, Republic of Chile and Canada on the occasion of this APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting.)

II. Evaluation of the meeting

  1. APEC has always supported the WTO DDA negotiations and, particularly given the imminence of the 6th WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong next month, the issuance by the Leader's Meeting of a strong stand-alone Statement designed to add political impetus to the struggling WTO negotiations was an important achievement.
  2. A Mid-term stocktake of the Bogor Goals was carried out this year, and the Leaders welcomed the results already achieved and reaffirmed that they intended to continue to work toward full achievement of the goals. And in relation to this, the Leaders reaffirmed the importance of behind-the-border issues such as structural reform, the protection of intellectual property rights and ensuring transparency, which are also priority areas for Japan.
  3. Concerning FTAs, appreciation by the Leaders of the progress of work such as work on Model Measures can be considered as an achievement that will further advance measures by APEC aimed at high-quality FTAs that respond to the needs of the business community.
  4. Concerning counter-terrorism and non-proliferation, the Leaders once again confirmed their support to the initiatives endorsed in the Ministerial Joint Statement and confirmed that these issues would continue to be core issues on the agenda of APEC.
  5. In this APEC meeting, many leaders noted the importance of measures to combat avian influenza, in particular international cooperation, and agreed to implement a variety of cooperation within the APEC region. Japan announced specific support measures for the international community regarding this issue.
  6. With respect to the regional situation, in particular North Korea, the Chair made a remark calling for the faithful implementation of the Joint Statement of the Fourth Round of the Six-Party Talks.
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