While the push for artificial intelligence (AI) mainstreaming and addressing demographic shifts united Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) member-countries, the goal of upholding a ‘multilateral trade system’ has split the regional economic bloc in their recent joint declaration.
On the last day of the 32nd Apec Summit in South Korea, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. together with other state leaders and participants of the regional economic bloc approved and issued the Gyeongju Declaration.
The new document, which was approved by consensus, highlighted the potential role of AI for enhancing industrial competitiveness and strengthening economic growth across sectors as well as other pressing matters in the Asia Pacific.
Marcos said the declaration was the result of a ‘very productive meeting’ at the 32nd Apec summit.
To help in the wide-scale adoption of the new technology, Apec called for active coordination between the public and the private sectors to make sure its regulatory regimes are conducive to its development and deployment.
‘We recognize the potential of AI to fundamentally reshape economies worldwide by unlocking new frontiers for innovation, enhanced productivity, improved competitiveness, economic prosperity and resilience,’ the declaration read.
‘We hereby endorse the Apec AI Initiative as a joint step toward advancing successful AI transformation within Apec, building AI capacities at all levels, including through regional cooperation, and cultivating an investment ecosystem for resilient AI infrastructure,’ it added.
Sweeping changes
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he backed the Apec position on AI since it provides guidance to other countries on what possible policies to adopt for the new technology.
He likened AI to a wave that will sweep away countries that fail to adopt it.
‘And if you don’t learn how to swim, i.e. if you do not learn how to use AI in the best way, and in a secure way, and in a benevolent way, you will be left behind,’ he said in Filipino in a press conference in South Korea on Saturday.
When asked about the extent of AI adoption he would allow in the government, Marcos said it was still not ‘clear yet’ since the matter is still under study.
‘We have to talk to the experts. We have not only Filipinos, we have to talk to everybody, the whole world. And try and find out, again, those two things,’ he said.
Earlier this year, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) issued the National AI Strategy Roadmap, which contains the proposed infrastructure, workforce requirements, innovation, ethics and policy, and deployment for the adoption of AI. The roadmap will be implemented in phases.
Aside from Apec’s adoption of AI, other highlights of the Gyeongju Declaration also called for an enabling business environment for micro, small, and medium (MSMEs) and startups, and the proposed holistic and inter-generational policies to address declining birth rates.
It also pushed for coordinated global efforts on energy, food security, environment, extreme weather crisis, and climate change.
Apec recognized the important role of natural gas and liquified natural gas (LNG) in providing sustainable, secure, affordable and reliable energy.
Multilateral trade
The new document, however, omitted the language affirming shared a commitment to uphold the ‘rules-based multilateral trade system,’ which is the core mandate of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The statement has been included in Apec declarations between 2021 to 2024.
Marcos said many Apec leaders have expressed concern on prevailing trends, where some countries have gone against the rules-based multilateral trade system.
This, after the United States started imposing higher tariffs on other countries, which resulted in its trade war with China.
‘The fear that everyone is feeling now is that the principles and the strictures that guided the creation of WTO are no longer in place or at least no longer effective,’ Marcos said.
In his intervention during the recently concluded APEC summit, the President urged countries to support the restoration of WTO’s dispute settlement power to bring order to global trade.
‘WTO will help us open markets between countries. And that’s not what we’re not. The trend now is the opposite, it’s closing markets. Now China is the one who says, let’s open more markets,’ Marcos said.
In response to the global trend, he said the country is now eyeing to engage trade agreements with its non-traditional partners like Chile and Mexico.
Brief meeting
Last Thursday, US President Donald Trump met with Xi, and they agreed to roll back some of the trade restrictions between Washington and Beijing.
Trump opted to not participate in the Apec Leaders’ Summit this year. Xi decided to attend the forum for the turnover ceremony for the Apec Summit next year, which will be hosted by China, and push for multilateral trade.
He said both the US and China have decided to defer further trade-related hostilities for at least a year.
‘The best information I got says that they have declared peace for at least a year. So, the trade war will be less intense at least for a year. Or at least that’s the agreement. And, you know, when they told us that, they talked about it for a year. We hope it lasts a year,’ Marcos said partly in Filipino.
Marcos was able to briefly meet with Xi after the turnover ceremony and before the Apec Leaders’ retreat, where he decided to wish the Chinese state well in his hosting of the Apec Summit next year as common courtesy.
‘But when we came to the end [of the, I said, it’s embarrassing. I haven’t even said hello yet. Maybe if I say something, I might offend. So I tried to go to him. I said, congratulations on your assumption of the chair for the following Apec,’ he said.
‘And I hope to do good work together with you. That’s it. It was really brief. Really brief,’ he added.
He said he did not discuss the issue of China’s encroachment in the West Philippine Sea since Apec was not the right venue to discuss it.
‘This is Apec. It’s an economic meeting. We don’t talk, we don’t really talk about such issues,’ Marcos said.