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APEC Tackles Travel Uncertainties and Ensures Regional Connectivity
Issued by the APEC Safe Passage TaskforceAPEC member economies are ramping up efforts to revitalize cross-border travel by tackling the lingering uncertainties faced by travellers even as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third year.
Through a report developed by the APEC Policy Support Unit, APEC’s Safe Passage Taskforce put forward recommendations to drive the forum’s work on passenger movements in the region, looking into issues at and behind the border that can be addressed to facilitate travel and tourism in the region.
At the start of the pandemic, the APEC region implemented some of the most stringent cross-border travel restrictions in the world, and the impact of these measures have been massive and protracted.
According to the report, international tourist arrivals to APEC economies fell by 79.1 percent in 2020 relative to 2019, which is higher than the 69.8 percent contraction registered in the rest of the world. While the rest of the world saw an increase of 18.4 percent in tourist arrivals between 2020 and 2021, arrivals in the APEC region continued to decline by 28.3 percent during the same period.
“Safe passage coordination between member economies needs to continue even when the pandemic becomes endemic,” said Cherdchai Chaivaivid, Thailand’s APEC Senior Official and the chair of the taskforce. “Beyond COVID-19, we need to come together and build that resilience in the face of future pandemics or crises that may affect cross-border travel.”
“Travel and tourism are key to the economic growth of our region, so facilitating the safe resumption of cross-border movements will continue to feature post-pandemic,” Cherdchai added.
Since its inception earlier this year, the taskforce has been exchanging best practices on the safe resumption of cross-border travel at the domestic, sub-regional and regional levels. It has worked towards greater alignment of approaches across APEC, for example, through policy discussions on facilitating travel for air and maritime crew as well as improved interoperability of vaccine certificates issued by APEC economies.
Earlier this year, trade ministers welcomed the Voluntary Principles for the Interoperability of Vaccination Certificates in the APEC Region during their meeting in Bangkok in May. The voluntary principles encourage members to recognize vaccination certificates issued by other APEC economies as proof of an individual’s COVID-19 vaccination status for cross-border entry and use within borders.
“Containing COVID-19 through widespread and equitable access to vaccines is still the most important prerequisite to safely reopen borders and resume travel and tourism in the region,” said Emmanuel San Andres, a senior analyst with the Policy Support Unit.
“There is a need to strike a balance between policies that save lives and policies that enable economic activity and people-to-people connectivity,” San Andres added. “Key to finding this sweet spot is ensuring that border policies are based on the best public health science and empirical data.”
The report also emphasises the importance of providing travellers clear information about entry requirements relating to COVID-19. The information needs to be up-to-date and access should be easy. Thailand recently launched a one-stop information hub that highlights the summary of health and COVID-related border measures across APEC.
Regional mobility issues are cross-cutting and involve several ministries, the report highlights. It recommends member economies to continue coordination and cooperation and develop a mechanism that are flexible, ready and quick in order to immediately respond to future risks to cross-border mobility.
Read the full report: COVID-19 and Cross-Border Mobility in the APEC Region: Addressing Uncertainties at the Border
APEC Launches Information Hub for International Travel
Issued by the APEC Health Working GroupToday APEC launched a one-stop portal aiming to provide high-level summary of information on international travel within the region as member economies safely resume cross-border movement.
“One of Thailand’s focuses this year is to restore connectivity, which was disrupted by the pandemic, by promoting the resumption of safe cross-border travel across the APEC region, revitalize tourism, as well as facilitate business activities and increase investment in health security,” said Dr Pongsadhorn Pokpermdee, the Chair of APEC Health Working Group, who oversees the initiative.
“While the portal is heavily focused on travel and tourism, it provides information on health-related measures,” Dr Pongsadhorn added. “This only shows the importance of cross-collaboration between agencies in our economies in managing pandemic or any shocks.”
The information portal can be accessed at https://safepassage.apec.
“Even as we open up our borders and ease travel restrictions, there are still some measures in place related to COVID-19 whether it’s health declaration, mask mandate or showing of vaccine certification,” explained Cherdchai Chaivaivid, the Chair of APEC Safe Passage Taskforce.
APEC established the Safe Passage Taskforce during Thailand’s host year to develop and implement initiatives for safe passage, including those in relation to vaccination certificates.
As travel restrictions around the world have eased, the taskforce has focused on connectivity and on how to ensure that borders stay open in the case of future shocks or another pandemic.
“An information hub that is clear, simple and coordinated will help travelers navigate the different approaches we have in the region. They can refer to this portal as they plan their trips across APEC,” Cherdchai added. “Our goal is to facilitate travel as best we can, and we are looking forward to more economies participating in this initiative.”
The launch of the information portal was announced during the meeting of senior officials in Bangkok on Tuesday, as they kickstarted the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week hosted by Thailand.
Visit the APEC Safe Passage portal here: www.safepassage.apec.org
APEC Bulletin 15 November 2022
Post-COVID World is Divided—it Must Unite
By Rebecca Sta Maria
There are increasing concerns that the systems and order that make contemporary life possible—marked by connection, convenience and abundance—are coming apart.
According to observers, multilateralism, trade, and the rules-based order are in trouble, and that will undermine our ability to face the challenges looming ahead, principal among them the dangerous effects of changing climate. It is also commonly assumed that the main culprit is geopolitical tension between the two of the world’s biggest economies, China and the United States. I agree with the first statement. This is the time for us to work together—we must do better. Additionally, I would say the fate of the world order does not rely on the U.S. and China alone. Sure, both play a major part in that if one, or both, sneezes, we all get sick. Nonetheless, it takes the whole community for us to recover.
Take the case of COVID-19, which came at a time when relationships were at a nadir, hampering initial cooperation when the virus broke into a pandemic. Because it affected many, it took many, working together, to put it to heel. An example of this is how the challenge was met by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC forum—a group of 21 diverse economies that includes China and the U.S.
At the onset of the pandemic, many APEC officials expressed concern that protectionism and vaccine nationalism would prevail. But despite that apprehension member economies came together, meeting virtually, to pledge, among other things, support for facilitating the movement of vaccines across borders and low tariffs for essential medical goods.
They were quick to react to unclog and ensure the continued flow of essential goods. A special APEC leaders’ meeting was called in July 2021 to reinforce the urgency of collaboration. Customs guidelines were set laying out operational and practical measures to ensure supply chains were equipped to speedily carry vaccines and related goods. We worked with the business community, companies on both sides of the Pacific, who likewise committed to helping in the facilitation of the flow of goods and services, especially those that most support health and economic response at this critical time.
The virus is not yet gone, but already we are seeing the relationships among economies, which made connectivity possible slowly falter, again over geopolitical tensions, specifically those surrounding the war in Ukraine.
There’s enough documentary evidence to account for the continuing impact of the pandemic, as well as of the war and other factors, on the economy. Among APEC member economies, economic growth is expected to slow down to 2.5 percent in 2022, following a 5.9 percent expansion in 2021, and will improve slightly in 2023 to 2.6 percent, according to recent economic data published by the APEC Policy Support Unit.
Varying views among members must be respected. The issues in contention involve vital questions that must be addressed by the international community if we are to remain together. This typically involves confronting grim realities and challenging the status quo. Continuous disagreement puts a strain on solving vital priorities that benefit those on both sides of the argument, such as work in managing the impact of the pandemic and in working collaboratively towards recovery.
More importantly, it can render useless all the lessons of the past two years, which we will need to put into practice if we do not want a repeat of a similar crisis or worse.
The pandemic has driven home the point that we cannot work in silos. The pandemic is not just a health issue but an economic one as well. We must weave the expertise of the health sector with trade and customs, with business and civil society, among all governments and economies.
We require predictability in our rules and flexibility to facilitate the flow of the essential goods and people. We need enhanced regional and global collaboration in research, manufacturing, and distribution. We must be more innovative—not just in developing new products and services, but in flexibility, adaptability, and change—and for that we need to foster the free flow of dialogue and ideas. This involves reviewing our policies, our guidelines, regulatory innovation, distilling best practices and sharing them more widely.
Developments in the region encouraged by bodies such as APEC, as well as progress in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), inspire “guanxi” (a Chinese concept to explain connections and relations) and contribute to our collective resilience.
Taking the RCEP for example, it’s the first Free Trade Agreement (FTA) involving China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. This means that the tariff liberalization schedules agreed this time will not only enhance market access for goods exported from these countries but also raise the opportunity for the partners to participate more in global value chains. It provides a rising-tide model for regional economic integration.
As such, APEC is steady in its pursuit of our long-term aspiration for integration through a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), which will give us the opportunity to galvanize our approach to incorporating the so-called “next-generation trade and investment issues,” which include digitalization, inclusive growth, and sustainability.
In the past months, APEC minister-level officials have been in meetings and policy dialogues in person in Thailand for the first time in two years, signaling renewed enthusiasm and commitment to cooperation despite differences and disagreements borne by global geopolitics. The high-level gatherings cover all sectors crucial to the region’s recovery from trade, health, tourism, forestry, and food security to the economic empowerment of women, and small and medium enterprises.
The outcomes of discussions among ministers are guided by Thailand’s theme this year to Open, Connect and Balance the region’s economy, and demonstrate how APEC recognizes that economic goals should include not just economic growth, but must also ensure the well-being of people, inclusion, equity, and sustainability.
This November, APEC leaders will meet in Bangkok. There will be differences, but it will be a reaffirmation of the commitment to common goals.
APEC is diverse in terms of both ideology, as well as the size of the economies it brings together as equals. It is not a rules-based forum, which means its most common currency is trust. Specifically: trust in the fact that each member—as well as each representative from the business community, or academia, or anyone brought to the table—is invested in a greater good brought about by cooperation rather than division.
Trust has seen us over the course of many challenging events, including two major financial crises, the disruptive trade tensions, and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. We have heard many experts point out cracks in the old comfortable order but, so far because of this trust, multilateral cooperation endures.
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Dr Rebecca Sta Maria is the executive director of the APEC Secretariat. This article was first published by CGTN on 14 November 2022.
