Today, the greatest challenge facing APEC is to sustain the strides already made in its three-pronged agenda in the Asia-Pacific region – liberalization, facilitation and economic/technical cooperation. Similar to the challenge confronting the whole of APEC, the challenge for the Philippines is to maintain the dynamic process for improving and implementing its Individual Action Plan (IAPs) and convincing other APEC members to do likewise. This paper proposes a twofold strategy in enhancing the 1999 Philippine IAP. First, the paper proposes concrete improvements required in order to bring the Philippine IAP at least on a par with the APEC average in all the trade and investment liberalization and facilitation (TILF) areas outlined in the IAP. The second part is meant to address the free-rider problem through the peer review mechanism. Thus, the paper also suggests specific improvements (where appropriate) in the IAPs of the other APEC members to bring them to the level of the Philippine IAP.
