Achieving Effective Trade liberalization in APEC: The Trade Limitations of “Open Regionalism”

Until there is a substantial degree of consensus over the strategic issues and a greater body of work on the issues of liberalization, trade liberalization of APEC will yield slight results. This paper argues the need for intensive discussion and research about the modalities of successful trade liberalization. Long process of pre-negotiation is needed to establish the terms, target and modalities of negotiating reductions. All it requires is time.