Members of the APEC:
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

The main objective of the Asia-Pacific Economic Community is to promote economic cooperation in the region.

APEC thus primarily pursues the goal of an open and free trade area for goods, services and investments. This also includes promoting sustainable growth, technological progress and strengthening economic integration. A central aspect of APEC is thus the reduction of trade barriers, especially tariffs. Among other things, this has led to the creation of a free trade area over the past two decades, which initially only included industrialized nations among themselves, but since 2020 has also included developing countries.

It also prioritizes cooperation in promoting investment and economic and technological cooperation. Creating jobs and increasing economic resilience to crises are also on the agenda, but as with all trade alliances, they are complicated by the fact that excessively large and influential partners face a majority of smaller member countries.

Today, agreements are negotiated directly by the heads of state and government of the member states. Unlike in the European Union, for example, many decisions do not apply jointly to all members, but may also affect only a few countries.

Both Taiwan and Hong Kong are independent members of APEC. However, Taiwan is referred to here as "Chinese Taipei" and is also represented by a deputy rather than by the office of the president.

Dependent territories

Some of the above-mentioned member states have other external territories dependent on them. These are not independent states, but they do have some economic and political autonomy. The APEC treaties apply to them at least in part. These countries are not listed as official member states.