Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Asia has attained superpower status in the world economy, with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group being the region’s leading international forum. The broad purpose of APEC is to remove trade barriers. It has 21 member countries, representing 41 per cent of the world’s population (more than 2.7 billion people), and 49 per cent of total world trade. Much of APEC members’ trade is with other APEC members, and leaders from member countries meet on an annual basis to discuss economic and trade issues.