Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

APEC is an organization for international cooperation between Asia-Pacific countries. It was suggested by the Australia Prime Minister in 1989. In the same year, Korea, America, Japan, Australia, New-Zealand, Canada and 6 more ASEAN Countries met in Canberra, Australia, to officially establish the association. In 2003, APEC accepted China, Russia, Vietnam and Peru as members. Therefore there are 21 members in APEC.  APEC??s main purposes are cooperation in the areas of economics and technology and finding a solution for international economic imbalances. A distinction is that all APEC members are equal.  They made this treaty in OSAKA Acting-rule at 1995.

However in the real world, there are gaps between developed countries and developing countries. Developed countries want free trade and investment for open markets and developing countries want assistance in developing their country??s economy and technology. After this meeting, we Korea has had many advantages. There was an investment fair. In this fair we made 46 contracts worth seven hundred million dollars. Also in a Korea-Russia ministers?? meeting we asked for and received permission to fish in Russian territorial waters. The government has said that with these contracts and other activities the total income will reach four hundred and seventy billion dollars.

However, there is a dark side. According to open market trade, we have to remove import restrictions for agriculture products such as rice. This will cause the collapse of Korean agriculture. As we know, Korean rice is expensive. If the price of rice is reduced by half or even more, which policy would you choose? For this reason, our rice industry is loosing in price competitiveness. Finally, farmers will give up farming. Also, if we have no choice except to import rice, then rice export countries will use rice as a weapon by costing up