This project aligns with the following stated APEC priorities:
a. In the 2012 APEC meeting of the Ministers Responsible for the Environment on the topic of sustainable water management and trans-boundary watercourses, the ministers stated, “We note the importance of cooperation in the APEC region in the field of sustainable management of water and trans-boundary watercourse.”
b. Two years earlier, The APEC Leaders Declaration on Sustainable Growth indicated that, “Cooperation and partnership are essential to address environmental challenges that export beyond any single economy or APEC economies as a whole.”
c. The 2009 ABAC Report to APEC Economic Leaders, encouraged, “…APEC to consider ways to reduce barriers to trade and investment to environmental goods and services (EGS),” and, “Develop a work program to promote the value of action on EGS including steps to strengthen the capacities of APEC economies, to develop the EGS sector.”
This project embraces the APEC priorities related to the environment, particularly water quality t, by gathering fundamental information upon which to build a technical exchange and further collaboration on sustainable water management. Collection and dissemination of this data establishes a baseline of information and supports the following initiatives within the Subcommittee on Standards and Conformance:
a. Good regulatory practice – by encouraging knowledge of and utilization of available standards as facilitators of regulation, and policy based on sound technical information and stakeholder engagement, thus limiting non-technical barriers to trade
b. Product-related environmental standards – by sharing information that can be used to consistently and accurately apply standards for assessing environmental goods and services pertaining to water quality, analysis and management,
c. Export facilitation – by furthering opportunities for collaboration between the private and regulatory stakeholders by enabling the affected interests in APEC economies to reap the benefits of the technology contained within the standard, and work toward regulatory consistency and reduction of technical barriers to trade.
d. Trade enhancement -- in terms of standards alignment and technical infrastructure – by enabling economies to share knowledge and experiences in the field of innovative technologies through the establishment of contacts and collaboration of industry, public authorities, scientific community and business interests for the purpose of developing harmonized approaches to standards.
