The Latest on the APEC CBPR System

On November 20, the Heads of State for the 21 APEC member economies met in Lima, Peru, at the annual APEC Leaders’ meeting.

In their Joint Declaration, APEC Leaders once again recognized “the importance of implementing the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) System, a voluntary mechanism whose participants seek to increase the number of economies, companies, and accountability agents that participate in the CBPR System.” 

During his press conference in Lima, President Obama specifically called out the group’s endorsement to advance the digital economy and “to protect the privacy of personal information as it crosses borders.”

Greater Commitment to the APEC CBPR System

High-level recognition of and commitment to the CBPR system comes as more APEC economies formulate plans to join.

Last week, Chinese Taipei announced its intention to join the system.

And in a recent readiness survey released in October by the Governments of Vietnam, South Korea, and the Philippines indicated they intend to join the system.

For their part, Japan, which joined the system last year, has been finalizing regulations to implement its new data protection law.

The Government of Japan has indicated that it will specifically name the CBPRs as an approved transfer mechanism for data out of Japan.

These regulations are expected to be released by the end of this year.

More information on CBPRs and related trade initiatives can be found on the White House’s APEC outcomes fact sheet.

The CBPR system was endorsed by APEC member economies in 2012 for businesses established in the APEC region that collect and transfer personally identifiable information from consumers.

TrustArc TRUSTe was named the first accountability agent for the system in June 2013. 

TrustArc TRUSTe APEC CBPR certification

 

Learn more about obtaining a TRUSTe CBPR certification.