What We Do
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the premier Pacific Rim economic forum made up of 21 economies, supports sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the region. Within APEC, the Wine Regulatory Forum (WRF) of government officials and stakeholders is dedicated to regulatory cooperation and facilitation of the wine trade.
Though the region’s wine trade has increased steadily, so too have unnecessary trade barriers. In order to address this problem, in 2008 in Peru, APEC’s Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC) endorsed the establishment of the Wine Regulatory Forum with the following goals:
Examining options to simplify and harmonize wine regulation across the APEC region, reduce technical barriers to trade and protect consumers; and
Sharing information and building capacity in wine regulation across the APEC region.
Once formed, the WRF developed an ambitious, multi-year Implementation Plan, which to date has resulted in four major regulator conferences, “Seminar in Key Issues in Wine Regulation” (2011), “Dialogue on Risk Management in Wine Trade” (2012), the Wine Regulatory Forum Technical Workshop (2013), and the Wine Regulatory Forum Technical Meeting (2014).
The WRF is building on the recommendations from the 2011 and 2012 meetings to assist developing economies to implement specific, measurable good regulatory practices in 2013-2014. The 2013 Technical Workshop in Washington, D.C. continued on the earlier work and developed four concrete areas for future work: export certificates; compendia of regulations (Food Safety, Labeling, and Pesticide Residue); enhanced risk controls; and maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides on wine grapes. The 2014 Technical Meeting took place in Beijing, China on 11-12 September 2014 and focused on three areas: recent accomplishments and future activities of the four WRF Working Groups; technical issues in wine regulation; and economy roundtables which allowed each economy the opportunity to discuss key changes in wine regulation since the previous (2013) meeting.
We congratulate the SCSC Wine Regulatory Forum (WRF) for fulfilling its goal to develop a consolidated APEC wine certificate, which will facilitate wine trade in the APEC region. We look forward to continued work by the WRF to promote reduction and elimination of technical barriers for wine trade including through its efforts to promote good regulatory practices for wine through voluntary implementation of the APEC Model Wine Certificate.
— APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade, in Arequipa, Peru, May 18, 2016
OUTCOMES FROM RECENT APEC WRF MEETINGS:
Created a Model Export Certificate for Wine.
Held a training workshop to cover issues related to quality and methods in laboratories.
Drafted a Model Wine Standard to guide the development of Wine Standards so they align with widely accepted International Regulatory Practices.
Provided that APEC economy regulations relating to wine safety, wine labelling and export certification can now be accessed by all APEC WRF economies through an on‐line database, FIVS‐ABRIDGE.
Initiated ring testing to promote consistency and accuracy of analytical testing for key wine parameters.