Leaders from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec)  bloc converge in Manila for two days of talks on November 18-19, 2015. Founded in 1989 in Canberra, Australia, Apec aims to demolish barriers to trade and investment through nonbinding accords. The unwieldy grouping of countries and self-governing territories that range from liberal democracies to dictatorships accounts for three billion people, half of global trade and 60 per cent of world GDP.