A new APEC Small and Medium Enterprise Global Value Chain Business Matching and Internship Consortium was also introduced, consisting of small and large firms from APEC economies. The initiative will jumpstart information-sharing between them to pinpoint viable opportunities for small businesses to participate in the conception, design, production, marketing, distribution and support for consumer use of manufactured goods—from blue jeans to commercial jets. An online platform is under development to expand the scale and scope of exchanges.
"We are pushing to make our supply chains more innovative - because when individual companies embrace new technology, we can build tighter links between firms in every phase of the production process," Andrews said.
Officials further mapped out complex non-tariff policy barriers to facilitate small business participation in Asia-Pacific trade. Examples include unnecessarily complex regulatory requirements as well as local content requirements under which producers of manufactured goods must ensure that a certain percentage of their components are made in that economy and other localisation hurdles.
Steps were additionally taken to widen trade participation in particular sectors. This includes training for hundreds of small and medium enterprises from APEC economies on meeting product safety regulations for temperature sensitive exports - ranging from agriculture, to pharmaceuticals, to flowers - new logistics technology that tracks and ensures product integrity, and supply chain financing. The session was led by regulators and experts from Georgia Tech's Supply Chain and Logistics Institute and the National University of Singapore.
"We can help goods and products move more efficiently between our economies by transforming and modernising how our governments do business at the border," Andrews added. Technical collaboration is concurrently underway among APEC members to help each other ratify the World Trade Organisation Trade Facilitation Agreement by year's end and proceed with rapid implementation, simplifying customs procedures to save exporters, including small businesses, time and money.
"Together with our APEC partners, we can create a seamless, sustainable regional economy in the Asia Pacific-one which will make it easier for companies of all sizes to do business in the region," Andrews concluded.
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