APEC 2023: Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future Amidst Global Disruption

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As Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum host for 2022, Thailand overcame geopolitical, economic, and pandemic-related headwinds to successfully guide the group to a consensus on a Joint Leaders Statement and the landmark Bangkok Goals on the Bio-Circular-Green Economy. In 2023, the United States will host APEC for the first time in over a decade. Under the theme “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All,” what are the opportunities and challenges to make progress on pressing problems faced by APEC’s twenty-one member economies?

Join us for a conversation to review the summit outcomes in Thailand and for a preview of U.S. priorities for APEC in 2023. The United States will host ten ministerial-level meetings addressing trade and investment, small and medium businesses, women in the economy, health, food security, and more, concluding with President Joe Biden hosting the APEC Leaders Meeting next November in San Francisco. How will the U.S. build on the Bangkok Goals to achieve sustainability and inclusion objectives? What practical and impactful outcomes can be achieved, and what is the role of stakeholders?

Remarks via Zoom

H.E. Tanee Sangrat is Ambassador of Thailand to the United States. Prior to this, he served as Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Director General of the Information Department from 2020-2022. He oversaw the national communication campaign and expanded the network with the private sector and other organizations during Thailand’s APEC host year. He has served as Ambassador to Vietnam and as Consul-General in Los Angeles. He served as Deputy Director General for Southeast Asian Affairs and later as Director from 2010 - 2016, where initiated the Foreign Ministers’ Retreat forum and the Mekong Friendship Project for regional youths. He served as Political Counselor from 2007 - 2010 in Washington, DC, and headed the Consular section and worked on economic relations in Malaysia from 1997 - 2001. In 2011, he was seconded to International Organization for Migration IOM. 

Speakers

Matthew D. Murray was appointed as the U.S. Senior Official for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in February 2022. In this role, he coordinates U.S. participation in APEC and also oversees the Office of Economic Policy in the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Prior to his current assignment, he led the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs as Senior Bureau Official from August 2021 to January 2022, and he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Trade Policy and Negotiations from September 2020 to August 2021. He has focused on U.S. economic engagement with the Asia-Pacific region throughout his State Department career, including as Minister Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, and Special Assistant for East Asian and Pacific issues in the Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment. He is a Senior Foreign Service Officer who also has served overseas in Beijing, Shanghai, Dar es Salaam and New Delhi, and in Washington, D.C. as Director of the 24/7 Watch in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Angelica Tang is Head of Communications for Asia-Pacific policy at East West Bank. Previously she served as Chief Executive of the non-profit Committee of 100, spearheading China delegations, Track II discussions, and leadership development training. She was appointed by the U.S. Department of State to its 100,000 Strong Commission which aimed to promote public diplomacy through educational exchange in China. She was a columnist at The Diplomat contributing commentary on U.S. politics and foreign policy in the Asia Pacific region. She was an executive of the U.S. Department of Labor where she led regional post-September 11 economic revitalization programs. In her federal government service, she was a delegate to the biannual high-level U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, coordinating policy reviews and media briefings. Prior to that, she was appointed head of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs with oversight of immigration policy and immigrant advocacy initiatives.

Monica Hardy Whaley is President of the the National Center for APEC (NCAPEC) and has led it as its principal executive since 2002. She was its Deputy Director at the Center’s founding in 1994. Prior to assuming her responsibilities at NCAPEC, she served in various roles at the Washington Council on International Trade (WCIT), the premier trade policy organization in the most trade-dependent U.S. state. WCIT served as the coordinating organization for the U.S. hosting of the 1993 APEC meetings, which were the first APEC gathering convened at the Leaders level. She is an Alternate Member of the U.S. APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), Chair of the US-APEC Business Coalition, a member of the U.S. Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (US-PECC) as well as being a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy. She serves on several Advisory Boards, including those for Seattle University Albers School of Business-Department of Economics and the Seattle World Affairs Council.

Wendy Cutler (moderator) is Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) and the Managing Director of the Washington, D.C. office. In these roles, she focuses on building ASPI’s presence in the nation's capital and on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade, investment, and innovation, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia. She joined ASPI following an illustrious career of nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she also served as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative. During her USTR career, she worked on a range of bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade negotiations and initiatives, including the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, U.S.-China negotiations, and the WTO Financial Services negotiations. She has published a series of ASPI papers on the Asian trade landscape and serves as a regular media commentator on trade and investment developments in Asia and the world.

This program is co-hosted with the National Center for APEC.