APEC’s focus has shifted recently to place greater emphasis on behind-the-border structural policies in promoting regional economic integration, in addition to APEC’s traditional focus on at-the-border trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, and macroeconomic and financial policies. International research and country reform experiences, such as in Australia, Chile and New Zealand, suggest that policy coherence is an important ingredient to the success of economic reforms. Results presented in this paper suggest that behind-the-border policy settings, including the quality of regulations and costs of doing business, impact on the rate of economic growth convergence in the APEC region. We conclude therefore that APEC’s recent emphasis on improving the quality of behind-the-border policies, most notably through the work of APEC’s Economic Committee and the implementation of LAISR, complements APEC’s traditional emphasis on trade and financial policy issues and provides a more coherent economic agenda and a more coherent approach to its goals of regional economic integration and economic growth.