Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC AY-pek) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim which promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Following the success of ASEAN's series of post-ministerial conferences launched in the mid-1980s, APEC started in 1989, in response to the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies and the advent of regional trade blocs in other parts of the world; it aimed to establish new markets for agricultural products and raw materials beyond Europe.

Source: Wikipedia — Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (CC BY-SA 4.0)