APEC accounts for 40 percent of the world's population, 54 percent of economic output and 44 percent of trade. Exports within the group are forecast by consultancy firm PwC to nearly treble over the next decade to $14.6 trillion while exports to non-APEC countries will double to $5.6 trillion, making the Pacific Rim the focus of global growth in ( Read more... )

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific nations have made a breakthrough in promoting trade in 'green' technology, and the United States is pressing ahead with efforts to carve out a regional free-trade zone, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

Speaking before a summit of leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), ( Read more... )

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is unlikely to meet bilaterally with Chinese and South Korean leaders on the sidelines of the weekend summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba said Friday.

"I think it will be better not to make (meetings) official," Genba said, indicating the timing ( Read more... )

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s trip to Russia this weekend for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit comes during an important few weeks for Canada’s involvement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.

Many view the pan-Pacific free-trade deal as potentially outstripping the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in ( Read more... )

"The threat to the grouping’s (APEC) relevancy comes in the very sort of politics that APEC was designed to avoid. The United States, frustrated with a Chinese leadership that has benefitted from membership in international trade organizations while refusing to fully open its own markets or allow its currency to float, is working to gather the ( Read more... )