YOKOHAMA, JAPAN — A little-known trade pact promoted by US President Barack Obama has emerged as a key vehicle towards ambitions of creating a free trade treaty embracing more than half the world’s economy. Read the rest of this entry »

Urgent appeal for presidential decision

My last column requested that the President immediately appoint the new members of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). Further, I strongly recommend that Doris Magsaysay-Ho be reinstated as one of the three ABAC members. She provides continuity and is responsible for making labor mobility a focus item. ABAC meets in 17 days in Yokohama. Read the rest of this entry »

President Aquino will be attending his first full summit where he will sit together with the 20 other leaders simultaneously in an informal face-to-face setting. He would have by then one summit under his belt assuming all goes well and he attends the cozy atmosphere of the 17th ASEAN Summit in Hanoi after having skipped the ASEAN-Europe Summit in Brussels. Read the rest of this entry »

When the 21 leaders of APEC economies – including President Barack Obama, President Hu Jin-Tao, and our own President Aquino – meet next month in Yokohama, it will be the 18th time that APEC heads will do so. I have been privileged to attend all the APEC Summits beginning with the first one in Blake Island, just off Seattle, in 1993 – the first three meetings as secretary of foreign affairs and from 1996 onwards representing the private sector through the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). Read the rest of this entry »