s e c u r i t y p a p e r- a i m p meeting document database（s e c u r i t y p p e - i m p会议文档数据库）.docVIP

2004/AMM/002 Agenda Item: V.4 Study on the Mutually Supportive Advancement of APEC’s Trade Facilitation and Secure Trade Goals Post September 11 Purpose: Information Submitted by: Malaysia 16th APEC Ministerial Meeting Santiago, Chile 17-18 November 2004 Executive Summary In Shanghai in 2001, shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, APEC Leaders set the region on a determined course: to step up the facilitation of international trade by both cutting transactions costs in concrete terms for business and making trade more secure. These twin goals presented a challenge for APEC. It raised the concern that new measures to boost security would add to transactions costs and that within APEC’s diverse membership not all economies would be capable of improving trade facilitation in this new environment. The costs of terrorism to business and the economy are potentially high. There is the direct cost from the impact of a terrorist attack on life and property. The indirect costs can also weigh heavily when business acts on the perceived risk of terrorism and the results are amplified through the trading system. Governments, reacting to this situation, run the risk of imposing high costs on the trading system: in a direct way through charges and indirectly through delays to shipments. The solution to both making trade more secure and minimizing the direct and indirect costs of terrorism lies in the effective use of technology and in domestic and international cooperation and coordination. These measures provide the same solution for cutting transactions costs and for facilitating international trade more efficiently. APEC already has a wide range of measures underway to meet these challenges including its work on paperless trading. New initiatives, utilizing state of the art technologies and new systems, are being launched to make trade more secure. These are becoming more widespread throughout the APEC