Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All
1. We, the Economic Leaders of APEC, met in San Francisco, California, on November 16-17, 2023. Three decades after the United States hosted the first APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting on Blake Island near Seattle in 1993, it is clear our steady commitment to APEC’s mission has helped our region become a vanguard of global growth. Here in San Francisco, we emphasized that effective policies require, above all, responsiveness to all our people and economies. This commitment has grounded our vision and practical work in San Francisco and throughout the U.S. host year meetings in Honolulu, Palm Springs, Detroit, and Seattle.
2. Today we face a different and dynamic set of economic challenges. We must harness technological and economic progress to continue to unleash the enormous potential and tremendous dynamism across our region, spur economic growth, as well as to address all environmental challenges, including climate change. The commitments found within this Golden Gate Declaration build upon the work of previous APEC hosts and move our region towards new ways of bringing resiliency, sustainability, interconnection, innovation and inclusion directly into our priorities and working together to respond to our most pressing economic challenges. Our APEC mission and our practical work remain guided by our commitment, as laid out in the Putrajaya Vision 2040 and the Aotearoa Plan of Action, to an open, dynamic, resilient, and peaceful Asia-Pacific community by 2040, for the prosperity of all our people and future generations. In focusing that vision and work this year on the U.S. theme of “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All,” we have acknowledged both new challenges that confront us and innovative ways to respond to those challenges.
3. The U.S. host year builds on APEC’s Bangkok Goals on the Bio-Circular-Green Economy, which established the goal of progressing sustainable and inclusive economic policies while ensuring they also address environmental challenges. We welcome the San Francisco Principles on Integrating Inclusivity and Sustainability into Trade and Investment Policy (Annex) as well as the ministerial-level deliberations of the 2023 sectoral ministerial meetings for Transportation, Trade, Disaster Management, Food Security, Health and the Economy, Energy, Women and the Economy, Small and Medium Enterprises, and Finance, including the Non-Binding Just Energy Transition Principles for APEC Cooperation; Principles for Achieving Food Security Through Sustainable Agri-Food Systems in the APEC Region. We also welcome the updated Disaster Risk Reduction Framework and Action Plan.
4. We reaffirm our determination to deliver a free, open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, inclusive, and predictable trade and investment environment. We also reaffirm the importance of the rules-based multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core, which continues to catalyze our region’s extraordinary growth. We are committed to necessary reform of the WTO to improve all of its functions, including conducting discussions with a view to having a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024. We call upon APEC economies to work towards the timely and effective implementation of WTO agreements and reaffirm our commitment to engage constructively to ensure MC13 is a success and delivers positive outcomes.
5. We underscore our commitment to advance economic integration in the region in a manner that is market-driven, including through the work on the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific agenda. To this end, we will enhance our capacity building and technical cooperation efforts in support of economies’ readiness to participate in high quality and comprehensive regional undertakings. We will further strengthen our engagement with stakeholders, including the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and increase public-private sector dialogues.
6. We will continue to work to ensure a level playing field to foster a favorable trade and investment environment. We reiterate our commitment to accelerate work in response to the APEC Services Competitiveness Roadmap (ASCR) Mid-Term Review, with the aim to fully implement the ASCR by 2025. We also reaffirm our commitment to keep markets open and address supply chain disruptions, including by working to support our businesses in building secure, effective, resilient, sustainable, and open supply chains that create a predictable, competitive, and digitally interconnected Asia-Pacific region. By recognizing the unique needs and interests of all stakeholders, we can work towards more inclusive and sustainable policies that ensure our trade and investment equitably benefits all our people and economies. We remain committed to implementing the APEC Connectivity Blueprint (2015-2025) by strengthening physical, institutional and people-to-people connectivity. We will intensify efforts to promote regional, sub-regional and remote area connectivity. In this regard, we reaffirm the importance of quality infrastructure development and investment.
7. The world continues to confront profound challenges posed by the impacts of climate change. We recognize that more intensive efforts are needed for economies to accelerate their clean, sustainable, just, affordable, and inclusive energy transitions through various pathways, consistent with global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions / carbon neutrality by or around mid-century, while taking into account the latest scientific developments and different domestic circumstances. In doing so, we endeavor to unleash a new era of decent jobs, investment, economic growth, and ensure energy, security, resilience, and access in the region. We recall our commitment to rationalize and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, while recognizing the importance of providing those in need with essential energy services. To reach this goal, we will continue our efforts in an accelerated manner.
8. We will pursue and encourage efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally through existing targets and policies as well as demonstrate similar ambition with respect to other zero and low emissions technologies including abatement and removal technologies in line with domestic circumstances by 2030. To spur the transition to and investment in low and zero emissions transportation in the region through various pathways, we will pursue efforts to accelerate the transition towards low and zero emissions vehicles; sustainable aviation fuels; and low and zero emission maritime shipping and port decarbonization.
9. We commit to fully implement the Food Security Roadmap Towards 2030 as a pathway to make our agri-food systems more resilient, productive, innovative, and sustainable, while recognizing there is “no-one-size-fits-all” approach to agricultural sustainability. We also reaffirm our commitment to work towards the sustainable resource management of agriculture, forestry and marine resources and fisheries, including combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and emphasize the relationship between open, undistorted agri-food systems, climate change, and food security and nutrition. We reaffirm the importance of agricultural productivity, international trade, and prevention and reduction of food loss and waste, in achieving food security, and will increase our efforts to ensuring food security and nutrition.
10. We remain committed to improving the quality of life for all our people, and to creating a resilient and sustainable future for all. To do so we will continue to advance and support gender equality as well as the economic inclusion and empowerment of MSMEs, the workforce, women, youth, and other groups with untapped economic potential, such as Indigenous Peoples as appropriate, persons with disabilities, and those from remote and rural communities.
11. We emphasize the importance of creating pathways for MSMEs and start-ups to grow, including through opportunities to become more competitive, specialized, and innovative. We will support MSMEs to expand into regional and global markets, including by integrating into global value chains, through collaboration with large enterprises, and through the use of digital tools and technologies. We encourage the development of easy-to-use and cost-effective products and solutions that help MSMEs accelerate their digital transformation. We recognize the importance of access to finance to facilitate growth. We reaffirm the importance of building an enabling environment for MSMEs, as well as supporting the transition of economic actors from the informal to the formal economy.
12. Here in San Francisco, where APEC first launched the Women and the Economy Forum in 2011, we reaffirmed our commitment to promote economic growth including by fostering the full and equal participation and leadership of women in the economy, including by improving women’s access to capital and assets, markets, skills and capacity building, voices and agency, and innovation and technology. We welcome continued efforts to accelerate full implementation of the La Serena Roadmap for Women and Inclusive Growth to drive inclusive economic development. We commit to care policies and investments in care infrastructure that address the unequal distribution in paid and unpaid care and domestic work, and furthering gender equality in global value chains. We will support women’s meaningful economic participation, particularly in the sustainable economy, as well as women’s and girls’ education, including in STEM fields. We reiterate our commitment to actively encourage initiatives and strategies to prevent and respond to gender-based violence and discrimination against women and girls of diverse backgrounds.
13. We reaffirm our commitment to create an enabling, inclusive, open, fair and non-discriminatory digital ecosystem for business and consumers. We welcome U.S. efforts to implement the APEC Internet and Digital Economy Roadmap (AIDER), which will foster an inclusive digital economy for all. We encourage all economies to accelerate efforts to implement AIDER, including in the areas of data privacy, cloud computing, telecommunications networks, promoting interoperability, ICT security, and digital trade and e-commerce, emerging technologies, and promoting innovation and adoption of enabling technologies and services. To unlock the full potential of digital technology, equitably share its benefits, and mitigate risks, we will explore a concerted and collaborative policy response, promote international cooperation on digital technology, and welcome a continued international discussion on governance for digital technology. We also commit to bridging the digital divide, including halving the gender digital divide by 2030, taking into account different domestic circumstances. We will strengthen digital infrastructure, facilitate access to information and communication technology goods and services, and ensure that no one is left behind by equipping all people with the necessary skills needed to thrive in the digital economy. We will accelerate digital transformation and cooperate on facilitating the flow of data and strengthening business and consumer trust in digital transactions, including through cooperation on regulatory approaches regarding the internet and digital economy, as well as consumer protection and data privacy in the digital environment. Furthermore, we recognize APEC’s efforts towards a more inclusive APEC Business Travel Card as an enabling technology that support efficient and seamless business travel in the region, and APEC’s efforts to facilitate the recovery of travel and tourism following the pandemic.
14. Recognizing the detrimental impact of corruption on economic growth and development, we are committed to taking practical actions and a united approach, to jointly fight cross-border corruption and deny safe haven to corruption offenders and their illicit assets. We welcome the work this year in this regard.
15. Our stakeholders and business communities bring creativity, dynamism, and energy and remain vital partners in our work. We look forward to further strengthening multi-stakeholder engagement, including with ABAC and Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, as well as through events such as the APEC CEO Summit, and Sustainable Future Forum.
16. This Golden Gate Declaration and our cooperation throughout the U.S. host year exemplify our shared commitment to strengthening APEC’s leadership and standing as the premiere forum for economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. We look forward to the upcoming APEC host years of Peru (2024), the Republic of Korea (2025), and Viet Nam (2027), and we pledge our support to those economies as they advance APEC’s vital work. We extend our thanks to the people and City of San Francisco and State of California for the warm welcome extended to us.
Annex:
- San Francisco Principles on Integrating Inclusivity and Sustainability into Trade and Investment Policy
See Also:
Accompanying Chair’s Statement
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