APEC, agree to disagree later on

Do we still need APEC except for parade of presidents in a photo session with different styles each year and beautifully-crafted statements?

I mean it. This year in Busan, South Korea with Busan Roadmap. A decade ago in Bogor, Indonesia the declaration was named Bogor Goals. In Bogor, the leaders were with batik (Javanese traditional shirt) while in Busan with durumagi (traditional overcoat). Next year the leaders will meet again for a photo session in Hanoi, Vietnam with

But what is the real benefit of APEC to people in countries like Indonesia?

The leaders always agree on something at APEC but later on disagree in other multilateral regime and arrangements such as WTO, WHO, IMF, World Bank, etc. APEC is an organization with non-binding agreements and fully-loaded with empty declarations.

Pacific Rim leaders ended their annual economic summit Saturday with an indirect challenge to European countries to help revive global free-trade negotiations by cutting their hefty farm subsidies. That trade issue dominated the two-day APEC summit, just three weeks before a key WTO meeting in Hong Kong.

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