2011 San Francisco
The inaugural WRF meeting was attended by more than 100 government officials and international wine industry representatives who explored opportunities to reduce unnecessary impediments to trade, including streamlining regulatory import-export requirements. The regulators shared best practices on wine certification, analysis, winemaking practices and labeling in the APEC region.
Pictured Above: Michael Moore, New Zealand Ambassador to the U.S.; Sirma Karapeeva, New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries; Julia Doherty, Senior Director at the U.S. Office of Trade Representative, APEC Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance Chair; Robert P. (Bobby) Koch, President/CEO of Wine Institute.
The two-day meeting, hosted by the United States and co-sponsored by Australia; Chile; New Zealand; and Peru, included delegations from Canada; China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Korea; Mexico; Papua New Guinea; the Philippines; Russia; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; and Viet Nam. The meeting was an important step for government officials from throughout the region to build confidence in each other's regulatory systems and to work with industry to eliminate unreasonable and duplicative requirements. Additional information, including the meeting agenda, presentations, and press release can be found on the Wine Institute website.
The "APEC Wine Regulatory Forum Report" summarizes the discussions and outcomes of the APEC Wine Regulatory Forum Seminar. This report includes the "Compendium of APEC Economies’ Certificate Requirements for Wine Importation" report and selected workshop presentations.
Additionally, APEC's Publication, "Streamlining Export Certificate Requirements for Food Products in the APEC Region," gives an overview of APEC’s initiative on streamlining export certificates in response to APEC Leaders having called in 2011 for, in particular, the reduction of “unnecessary requirements in official export certificates for agricultural products.” APEC Leaders’ 2011 Statement also called for eliminating “requirements that are not based on science and essential to ensuring food safety.”