ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Osaka in November 1995, members were still split over the key issues of trade and investment liberalization. Some “agriculture tribes” of Japan’s Diet members, politically supported by the farmers, visited Southeast Asian countries in August to seek understanding of the exceptional treatment. In 1990, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad proposed the idea of an East Asian Economic Group, an East Asian Economic Caucus. According to Noboru Hatakeyama, president of the Japan External Trade Organization, “APEC changed from a project-oriented forum to a trade and investment liberalization-oriented group at the fifth meeting in Seattle in 1993”. The United States, however, strongly persisted in conditional application of the nondiscrimination principle within the APEC region, in particular toward China. On the trends in intraregional investment, The APEC Economic Outlook says: Foreign direct investment in the APEC region, both outward and inward, has grown tremendously.
