Host’s Report on the APEC High-Level Symposium on Electronic Commerce and Paperless Trading 
Beijing, China  9-10 February 2001

1.  The APEC High-Level Symposium on Electronic Commerce and Paperless Trading was held at the China International Electronic Commerce Center, Beijing, China from 9-10 February.  The Symposium was hosted by China, with Australia assisting the preparation as the co-sponsor.  The Symposium was officially opened by HE Mr. Shi Guangsheng, Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the People’s Republic of China, HE Mr. Wu Jichuan, Minister for Information Industry, the People’s Republic of China, and HE Mr. David Irvine, Ambassador to China, Australia.  Over 260 government, academia and private sector representatives from 20 of the 21 APEC economies participated in the symposium.  The Symposium was enhanced by the active participation of representatives from the private sector, representing SMEs, large corporations and Multi-national companies.

2.  Mr. Shi Guangsheng pointed out that E-commerce has become a new development engine of the world economy.  China attached great importance to the development and application of electronic commerce and information technologies and has carried out the “Gold Bridge”, “Gold Customs” and “Gold Card” projects to build its e-commerce infrastructure.  Mr. Wu Jichuan said that China’s strategies and policies included the establishment of a national infrastructure orientated towards the 21st century, the acquiring independent innovation capability, the digital restructuring of member economies and the improvement of government administration systems.

3.  Mr. Irvine looked forward to the symposium making a contribution to APEC’s efforts to address the digital divide and facilitate business in the Asia Pacific.  He pointed out that the two major contributions that Government can make to achieve this objective are committing to online procurement and working with industry to facilitate paperless trading systems by implementing electronic trade administration systems. A full summary of the proceedings is attached.

Overview

4.  At the APEC Ministerial Meeting in Kuala Lumpur in November 1998, Ministers agreed that APEC members would adopt, where possible, 2005 and 2010 as targets for paperless trading.  To achieve this goal will require APEC to implement its ECOTECH mandate and assist member economies to promote the development of e-commerce and paperless trading.   

5.  The Symposium noted that global e-business revenue will grow by 86% per year to $1.3 trillion in 2003, given the extensive market, rapidly rising business needs, as well as the growth of infrastructure. The large number of business representatives made a valuable contribution to the Symposium.  

6.  The Symposium was instrumental in raising awareness of the different approaches to e-commerce and paperless trading being undertaken by individual government agencies and economies.  It facilitated the cross-fertilization of ideas between economies and agencies, registered the need to ensure that a new range of trade barriers are not inadvertently built into electronic trade administration systems and identified specific measures needed to assist the introduction of paperless trading systems. 

7.  The Symposium also noted work currently underway in APEC economies related to e-commerce that supports a variety of ongoing customs and CAP items—from the development of risk management techniques to the emphasis on improving cargo release times at ports of entry.

8.  Main themes presented

•	Cross-border trading issues remain a challenge throughout the region.  There are still specific challenges related to legal issues, harmonization of data, authentication issues and standardization issues which are on the work program of the TEL Electronic Security Task Group and E-Commerce Steering Group (ECSG).  

•	Businesses in those economies that fully realize the benefit of electronic trading will be at a competitive advantage. To do so they will need to work closely in a co-operative manner with relevant government agencies.

•	The need for business and governments to work closely together to develop integrated platforms for paperless trading. Industry renewed its offer to work with governments to assist the implementation of paperless trading strategies.

•	E-commerce exchanges which will play an important role in facilitating international trade are being developed by industry.  As these exchanges develop there will be an increasing requirement for government agencies and industry to provide integrated solutions.

•	The need to enhance awareness of emerging developments in e-commerce and paperless trading in trade administration agencies and the judiciary.

•	To realize the full potential of e-commerce, governments need to place a higher priority on training and development of IT professionals and users.  Specific skills development and training needs should be identified and steps undertaken to assist companies and trade agencies to develop and implement e-commerce trading systems.

9. Trade-related policy aspects

Some participants noted that the WTO rules - GATT, GATS and TRIPS apply to electronic commerce and encouraged members to refrain from measures that impede the development of international electronic commerce.  Some participants suggested that the WTO Services 2000 negotiations agree to a standstill commitment not to impose new restrictions that could adversely affect e-commerce.  Some participants sought to encourage trade facilitation activities under the WTO Information Technology Agreement (ITA) including the conclusion of the ITA II agreement and a productive work program on non-tariff measures.

10. Role for business 

Some participants suggested that business could:

•	Provide expertise and solutions to governments to assist the development of cross- border electronic trade administration systems.  

•	Strengthen their partnerships with governments.

•	Ensure that emerging business platforms for international trade are interoperable with developments in government systems.

11. Role for government

Some participants suggested that: 

•	Governments should provide a stable policy toward paperless trading and e-commerce.  Governments should cooperate with cross-border data exchange in areas such as customs and quarantine services.

•	As a first step to achieving APEC’s paperless trading objectives there was a need to conduct several pilot studies of systems to assess their suitability to form the basis of any APEC wide system.  

•	Governments can lead the way in establishing the infrastructure and building the business case for the wider adoption of business to business e-commerce applications in international trade.  Each APEC member economy should be encouraged to work to develop applications which satisfy the needs of business.  They should commit to sharing their experiences with fellow APEC economies and where possible, to support the wider application of these projects.  

•	Electronic trading systems should be technology neutral and provide open access via the internet and allow linkages with other customs administrations and the business community.
 
•	APEC economies should encourage the development of a one-stop service from Government for trade related transactions which will require a commitment to coordination and cooperation between diverse government sectors.

•	Developing economies should be encouraged to take concrete steps by 2005 to meet the 2010 paperless trading target so as to take advantage of the benefit of the electronic commerce and paperless trading. 

•	There is a need to strengthen government legislation, particularly legal infrastructure as it relates to e-commerce, and to build confidence in the legal standing of electronically stored data.

•	There is need to ensure that in developing systems and protocols, APEC government agencies should ensure they are integrated with emerging business models and e-commerce protocols.

•	Government agencies should show leadership to adopt new business practices.  Managers will have to adopt new approaches to risk management to re-engineer existing practices into electronic trading systems.

12. Access for all

Participants stressed the need to ensure that developing members of APEC can fully benefit from the introduction of electronic trading systems.  

13. Observations for APEC Senior Officials’ consideration

Participants considered how best to promote e-commerce and paperless trading in the APEC region.  Possible follow-up actions discussed during the symposium included:

i.  APEC member economies could undertake projects on a voluntary basis which will pilot government and industry initiatives to demonstrate the feasibility of meeting the APEC goals of paperless trading by 2005 or 2010.  The projects should be consistent with the APEC paperless trading goals and take into account the findings of this seminar.  In developing pilot projects member economies could publish progress reports and present the outcomes to all APEC members and, where appropriate, seek to work with others to extend pilot outcomes.   Pilot projects could build on lessons learnt from other previous paperless trading and e-commerce projects.

ii.  Results and presentations of the Symposium could be disseminated through the website of the China International Electronic Commerce Center  (www.ec.com.cn) with specific links to the APEC web-site and relevant fora.

iii.  In order to meet the 2005/2010 paperless trading targets agreed at Kuala Lumpur, Senior Officials could encourage each member economy to develop an Individual Action Plan this year to outline its proposal to achieve these targets and to share their past experience with other member economies. The framework and guidelines for these Plans could be developed by relevant fora in APEC to ensure that reporting is on a consistent basis. 

Economies that are not in a position to develop an Individual Action Plan could provide an assessment of the major impediments they expect to encounter in implementing electronic trading systems by the due dates.  In doing so they could identify any assistance they will require to achieve this target.  APEC could consider means of providing appropriate technical assistance, either by member economies or APEC industry groups, to help these economies to make these assessments.

iv.  The business sector could establish an alliance within businesses engaged in e-commerce to enhance business linkages as well as to conduct regular exchange of views with APEC government officials through appropriate fora and to assist them to implement electronic trading system.

v.  Cooperation efforts undertaken by APEC fora on specific issues such as legal issues, security and certification, authentication and infrastructure development could be enhanced and conducted in a more systematic and comprehensive approach.  The business sector could be included where possible.

vi.  There would be considerable value if a similar symposium could be arranged under the auspices of APEC, especially for judiciary officers, to discuss the acceptance of electronic evidence by courts and related legal issues.