An APEC year is not structured chronologically (following a calendar year) but it is organised based on four important blocks of meetings, called “SOM” which are preceded by an informal meeting that prepares the year ahead.
It is important to note that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, Malaysia as host in 2020 had to rearrange the calendar of the year to adapt to virtual meetings of shorter duration. Therefore, APEC 2020 did not follow the usual SOM-cluster approach. For 2021, New Zealand will also carry out a virtual year, but following the traditional SOM-cluster structure again.
APEC maintains a hierarchical structure of meetings that goes from the highest level, the Leaders of the member economies, through Ministers, Committees, to the most technical levels of the workgroups, which cover a variety of topics. The groups report their work to Committees, which report to Senior Officials, and these report to the Ministers. On the other hand, the Ministers elevate initiatives and relevant topics to Leaders, for their noticing and approval. Finally, the Leaders establish and determine the guidelines and instructions for the whole forum, generating a process of cyclic work.
It is the last and most important APEC meeting of the year in terms of the presence of authorities, officials, media coverage and publicity. The Leaders of the twenty-one member economies of the Forum meet to address the work of the year related to the priorities, main results, and to define at the highest level the guidelines to be followed by the Forum.
During each Leaders Summit, they typically issue a declaration which highlights the work carried out under the priorities of the year, the main results and achieved deliverables. They talk about the global context and establish guidelines and alignments for the future work of the Forum.
During the Leaders’ Week, the Ministers meet a couple of days before the Leaders’ Retreat to address and discuss the most relevant topics of the Forum, review the main results of the year, and to establish guidelines for the Committees and groups of the Forum. As in the case of the Leaders’ Meeting, this ministerial meeting concludes with the issuing of a joint Ministerial Declaration that contains the high-level achievements of the year, as well as instructions or lines of work for the future..
Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting: the Ministers meet once a year to advance the trade and investment agenda with views to deepening regional economic integration in APEC. As with all ministerial meetings, the MRT concludes with the issuance of a statement. In 2019, Chile achieved the first integral consensus declaration since 2015 which recognizes the importance of rules in international trade, makes a call to reform the OMC and contains language related to the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).
It is a meeting held as part of the Finance Ministers’ Process (FMP) in which macroeconomic and financial topics of the region are addressed, as well as priorities of the members on financial policy matter at the local and regional level.
The host economy has the prerogative of determining sectorial ministerial meetings, which are generally aligned with its domestic interests and defined priorities for its host year. Nevertheless, there are two ministerial meetings which usually take place every year: the Women and the Economy Forum; and the Small and Medium Enterprises Ministerial Meeting.
The term “SOM” (Senior Officials’ Meeting) is also used to refer to Senior Officials of each of the twenty-one economies, which have the role of leading the technical work of the Forum, both on the Committees and the workgroup levels. They meet with that aim at least five times a year, coinciding with the end of the Committee and workgroup meetings. In those meetings the SOM address and discuss the most relevant work topics and instruct the different Committees and groups of the Forum. Moreover, it is noteworthy that in 2020 SOMs had more than 15 meetings, as they worked to develop the new APEC Post-2020 Vision.
The Forum has four committees:
APEC has over seventy workgroups and sub workgroups that address different topics. Workgroups meet between once and twice a year, and the majority has different subgroups to address and work on even more specific topics.
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