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Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is no longer "talk only". It is an institutionalized forum of 18 sovereign nation-states: the United States, Canada, Mexico and Chile on the American shore of the Pacific, Japan, South Korea, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, on the Asian shore, and Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands in the South Pacific. The principal item of its agenda is to liberalize intraregional trade and investment flows with a target for free trade by 2010/ 2015/ 2020.

The many and varied issues before APEC include harmonization of tariff rules, standardization of products in trade, formulation of an investment code, human resource development, environmental parameters, energy resource exploration, employment and growth and coordination of monetary-fiscal policies toward facilitation of its agenda.

Annual APEC Summits with the participation of the heads of the member-states since 1993 have become an event of global economic significance. Each member-state has designated an eminent person, and the eminent persons' group (EPG) works to prepare blueprints for the summit meetings. At the Osaka Leaders' Summit, the designation of EPA was discontinued. However, parallel functionaries will certainly be in order. Each APEC member-country may designate an Advisor Plenipotentiary. Regular meetings of APEC finance ministers review monetary-fiscal issues. The senior officials at the national capitals of APEC member-states have their assignments and the Senior Officials' Meetings (SOM) have become a regular feature. Then, there is the APEC Secretariat in Singapore.

APEC is neither an FTA, as is NAFTA, nor is APEC an integrated, intraregional economic union, as is the EU. What is it? It has been rightly suggested that APEC is indeed "a moving target" which very much defies a textbook definition.

Soon after the Treaty of Rome became operational on January 1, 1958, giving birth to what is now the EU, concerned economists in the Asia-Pacific region articulated the concept of OPTAD. The movement continued to gain momentum, as it were, in tandem with the progress of economic regionalization in Western Europe. Shortly after the Single European act was adopted in 1985, APEC became formally institutionalized in 1989. In 1992, the Maastricht Treaty became yet another turning point for the EU, and in 1993, APEC attained its heightened visibility by convening an annual summit with the participation of the heads of APEC member-states, for the first time in its short history. The APEC Summit in Bogor, Indonesia in 1994 was a great success. In 1995 the next summit was held in Osaka, Japan. "As more summits are held, APEC's vision becomes clearer every year", asserts Jang Hee Yoo. Annual summits have also been scheduled for 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 in the Philippines, Canada, Malaysia and New Zealand, respectively. "It is too early to say how APEC will really evolve", says Fred Bergsten, adding that for the present, " APEC is a regional institution for trade and investment liberalization". The EPGs of Indonesia, China, Singapore, Australia, and Thailand further confirm: "APEC is a consultative forum for trade liberalization", "a consultative forum for its member-countries", "a political commitment to the whole area of trade liberalization", "economic regionalization based upon the concept of voluntary association with its focus upon free trade in the region", and "a trade forum, trade and investment forum". The EPG of Malaysia adds, "We must make sure that APEC succeeds in creating this Pacific community and this effective economic entity". The APEC initiative continues to unfold. . .

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