(5 September 2007 – Australia) As Sydney goes into security lockdown for the APEC meeting, Austrade has called on leaders of the 21 member countries to harmonise trading standards and regulations to make trading easier.Austrade chief economist Tim Harcourt said many behind the border issues such as non tariff barriers, business regulation, cultural issues and other obstacles meant there were still many impediments to trading.
He said World Bank research revealed it took an average of 21 days to transport goods over an APEC border compared to 14 days in the OECD.
Harcourt said that with so many major world economies in APEC, a more open global economy would help facilitate trade and investment, accelerate economic growth and help reduce world poverty.