AFTA-CER trade bloc can advance: Australia<\/p>\n
CANBERRA (Dow Jones): Despite major hurdles, Australian Trade
\nMinister Mark Vaile is confident a meeting later this week can
\nadvance plans to liberalize trade between Australia, New Zealand
\nand the Association of South East Asian Nations, he said
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
He was commenting ahead of an economics ministerial meeting
\nand after ASEAN officials Monday recommended ASEAN complete
\nformal talks with Australia and New Zealand by the end of 2001.<\/p>\n
ASEAN officials will formally present their report at the
\nministerial meeting, scheduled Oct. 4-7 at Chiang Mai, Thailand.<\/p>\n
The 10 members of ASEAN are already working toward free trade
\nfor the group and have formed the ASEAN Free Trade Area. Members
\nof ASEAN include Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
\nMalaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
New Zealand and Australia are pushing for a free trade
\nagreement and are tied through a similar pact known as Closer
\nEconomic Relations. An AFTA-CER free trade area would cover a
\nmarket of about 560 million people.<\/p>\n
Vaile noted the agreement among officials to pursue the notion
\nof a regional free trade area in further talks.
\n\"Hopefully that will translate into a positive disposition by
\nministers on Friday in Chiang Mai,\" he told reporters.<\/p>\n
\"Certainly the ministers from Australia and New Zealand are
\nenthusiastic about the prospects of moving forward with this
\nagreement,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The minister said the decision to advance was supported by an
\nAustralian study issued in July that found major economic gains
\nfor all countries were likely if the plan went ahead.<\/p>\n
The study said an AFTA-CER free trade area would generate
\ntotal gains of US$48.1 billion over the period 2000 to 2020.<\/p>\n
Gains to Australia would be in the order of $19.1 billion, New
\nZealand would gain $3.4 billion and ASEAN nations $25.6 billion,
\nit said. The study was prepared by Canberra-based Center for
\nInternational Economics.<\/p>\n
Vaile said a major challenge to establishing an AFTA-CER trade
\nbloc would be each nation successfully answering the question
\n\"what's in it for us.\"<\/p>\n
Any decision, he said, will be taken in each country's
\nnational interest.<\/p>\n
\"They're going to need to be assured that there is a benefit
\nfor all, which we believe there is,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He warned against underestimating negative perceptions and
\nconcerns in the region about quarantine processes in Australia,
\nwhich he defended as legitimate under existing World Trade
\nOrganization rules.<\/p>\n
Australia and Malaysia also have suffered prickly relations at
\ntimes over the past decade, but Vaile noted that Malaysian
\nofficials have taken part in the talks this week.<\/p>\n
\"It certainly gives us hope, I don't underestimate the
\nconcerns that have been raised from time to time by Malaysia and
\nthe Malaysian minister,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Australia has managed with a number of countries and
\n\"particularly with Malaysia to strengthen the trade and
\ninvestment growth...in spite of other issues,\" he said.<\/p>\n
For Australia, Vaile said any AFTA-CER pact won't \"undermine
\nor diminish our commitment to achieving faster and deeper
\nliberalization through the multilateral system of the WTO.\"<\/p>\n
After the Chiang Mai meeting, he travels to Banff, Canada, for
\na meeting of the Cairns group of agricultural exporting nations,
\nthe first meeting of the group since the failure of the WTO
\nministerial meeting at Seattle late in 1999.<\/p>\n
Cairns Group ministers will examine progress in WTO talks on
\nagriculture since then, he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The Cairns Group is pushing for an end to trade-distorting
\ndomestic production and export subsidies, he said.<\/p>\n
\"Ministers will discuss how to take the negotiations forward
\nin the period before a new comprehensive trade round is
\nlaunched,\" Vaile said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Cairns group members include Australia, South Africa,
\nIndonesia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand,
\nParaguay and Uruguay, among others.<\/p>\n
The Banff meeting also will be attended by European Union
\nAgricultural Commissioner Franz Fischler and Egypt's Minister for
\nEconomy and Foreign Trade Youssef Boutros-Ghalia.<\/p>\n
Preceding the Cairns Group's Banff meeting will be a meeting
\nof the Global Alliance for Sugar Trade Reform, a group pushing to
\nliberalize the sugar trade. Member nations include Australia,
\nThailand, Brazil and major importing nations.<\/p>\n
Cairns Group farm leaders also will meet in Banff ahead of the
\nCairns Group meeting as will Canadian Agri-Food Exporters, Vaile
\nsaid.<\/p>",
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