In some economies, the vocal opposition to liberalization has little to do with openness as such and more to do with the quality of employment available, the rising levels of income inequality, and the stagnation of real incomes on average. [...] We started our current project 2 years ago, over that time, we have discussed: the changes in the global and regional current economic context; the background of the FTAAP concept; the progress made in the building blocs; what do we mean by an FTAAP; why a refreshed look at the FTAAP concept; how can the FTAAP concept add value on specific issues; and what initial topics we might address for furth. [...] The pursuit of the FTAAP-related policy agenda is a valuable collaborative response to this situation; • The very high cost of potential economic fragmentation; • There are substantial economic benefits from moving in the direction of the FTAAP concept, with the largest gains coming from addressing regulatory barriers, especially those on services; • The implementation of agreements such as CPTPP. [...] Members of PECC have been working closely with the APEC Economic Committee over the past few years in thinking about the role of the structural reform agenda, the connections between these reforms and competitiveness of the service sector. [...] The dynamics of reform are complex, 28 percent of respondents selected the failure to implement structural reforms making it the 9th highest risk to growth, but at the same time structural reforms and associated issues ranked 3rd highest in the priorities for APEC Leaders.
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- Published in
- Singapore
