USCIB members and staff will be front and center as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies convene September 12-26 in San Francisco for their third senior officials’ meeting of 2011.  Founded in 1989, APEC encompasses 21 economies of the Asia-Pacific region, with a focus on facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment.

As the host to APEC this year, the United States held the first two senior officials’ meetings in Washington, D.C. in February and in Big Sky, Montana in May.  The meetings in San Francisco will set the stage for the APEC Leaders Meeting and CEO Summit, November 9-14 in Honolulu.

The San Francisco gathering will include important high-level meetings on women and the economy, energy and transportation, information and communications technology, and life sciences innovation.  Also on the agenda are important sessions on customs and trade facilitation, electronic commerce and data privacy, and chemicals.

By participating in the APEC process, companies and business groups have the opportunity to lay out their priorities on various trade and investment issues directly to the economies of greatest interest, and participate in dialogues with the officials who ultimately make the policy decisions affecting their industry.  Business input into APEC is facilitated at the regional level through the APEC Business Advisory Council, and at the U.S. level via the National Center for APEC.

USCIB members and staff will be busy informing discussions and attending a number of high-priority meetings, including the following.

• Women and the economy: Ronnie Goldberg, USCIB’s executive vice president and senior policy officer, has been invited by the Department of State to attend the Women and the Economy Summit, which takes place September 13-16. The WES is set to bring together senior private- and public-sector representatives for a dialogue on fostering women’s economic empowerment among the APEC economies. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to deliver the keynote address.
• Chemicals: Helen Medina, USCIB’s director of life sciences and product policy, will have an active role at the APEC Chemical Dialogue, scheduled for September 12-13, leading industry input and continuing discussion on the chemical in articles project from February’s meeting in Washington, D.C.
• Customs: Nasim Deylami, USCIB’s manager of customs and transport policy, will participate in the APEC Customs-Business Dialogue on September 17, joined by members of USCIB’s Customs Committee to address issues ranging from mutual recognition of authorized economic operators to supply-chain connectivity and security.
• Privacy: USCIB is coordinating a seminar on “APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules: The Company Perspective:”  At the earlier senior officials meeting in Washington, Heather Shaw, USCIB’s vice president of ICT policy, spoke on a panel about the costs and benefits to corporate participation in the program.  In San Francisco, a working group will consider the potential interoperability between the APEC rules and other existing regulatory systems dealing with cross-border privacy issues, such as the EU’s binding corporate rules.

In addition to the above events, Justine Badimon, USCIB’s APEC affairs manager, will join members at public-private dialogues at the energy and transportation ministerial, a meeting of the APEC business mobility group, and the Secure Trade in APEC Region conference.  She will also support a presentation of the Asia-Pacific Interactive Tariff Database to the business community and APEC customs officials.

USCIB is already looking ahead to the November leaders’ meeting and CEO summit in Honolulu, where a full agenda of public-private roundtables and events is being organized to facilitate discussion and cooperation between the public and private sectors of APEC member economies.  USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson plans to attend the CEO summit, joining many USCIB member companies in communicating industry’s priorities for the Asia-Pacific region.

For more information about registration for private-sector activities, please visit the National Host Committee’s website at www.apec2011usa.org.

Staff Contact: Justine Badimon