“Next week a regional simulation exercise will take place that will test the emergency responses and communication channels among APEC Member Economies in the event of a pandemic,” Minister Truong said
“Ministers look forward to the success of this exercise in ensuring the preparedness of APEC to deal with any future pandemic.”
The growth of new Free Trade Arrangements and Regional Trade Agreements was also discussed. Ministers and government officials have been instructed to continue with work to develop useful model measures on FTAs/RTAs that will be presented to APEC Ministers and Leaders for endorsement in November 2006.
Ministers also called on Member Economies to continue their work on two additional model guidelines to strengthen APEC's work to counter the production and trafficking of counterfeit and pirated products. These include measures to ensure that supply chains are free of counterfeit and pirated goods as well as the development of model guidelines for effective IPR public awareness campaigns.
The two day ministerial meeting was held in Ho Chi Minh City and included input from the Director General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, and representatives from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) as official observer organizations to the APEC Process.
The next ministerial level meeting to be held as part of APEC 2006 Viet Nam will be the 13th APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting in Ha Noi on September 4-8.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
marketing@alchempro.com
