apeccommitteeontradeandinvestment.doc

APEC COMMITTEE ON TRADE AND INVESTMENT THIRD MEETING FOR 1997: ST. JOHN’S 26-27 AUGUST 1997 CHAIR’S SUMMARY RECORD OF DISCUSSION INTRODUCTION 1 The third meeting of the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI) for 1997 was held in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada on 26-27 August. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Christopher Butler of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 17 APEC member economies were represented. The APEC Secretariat was also present. Representatives of the ASEAN Secretariat, the South Pacific Forum and PECC attended as observers. (The list of participants is attached as Annex 1, page 16.) 1. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA 2 The Committee adopted the annotated agenda as drafted. (A copy of the agenda is attached as Annex 2, page 32). 2. ADOPTION OF THE CHAIR’S SUMMARY RECORD, VICTORIA MEETING, 29 - 30 JANUARY 1997 3 The Committee adopted the Chair’s Summary Record of Discussion of the Quebec City CTI Meeting, 16-17 May 1997. 3. CHAIR’S OPENING REMARKS 4 The Chair extended a warm welcome to all delegates and expressed appreciation to Canada for the generous hospitality which had been extended to all participants, and for the excellent arrangements which had been made for the CTI meeting and for the associated sub-group meetings. 5 The Chair noted that there were new CTI representatives at the meeting, and extended the Committee’s welcome to them. He expressed the Committee’s appreciation of the contribution made by the outgoing representatives. 6 The Chair foreshadowed that the St John’s CTI meeting would finalise reports to SOM III on: (i) Ministerial Instructions from Montreal with respect to Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalisation (ii) A Focused TILF Package (iii) High Profile TILF Deliverables (iv) Revised IAP Format Guidelines 4. REPORTS FROM CONVENORS 7 The Chair noted that a number of sub-group mandates were to be considered. He acknowledged the considerable workload shouldered by