ASEAN anxious to push forward free trade plan<\/p>\n
BANGKOK (Reuter): The six-member Association of Southeast
\nAsian Nations (ASEAN) will meet this week to push forward a plan
\nfor a free trade area in the region before a Pacific rim trade
\nzone comes into effect, officials in Thailand said yesterday.<\/p>\n
ASEAN economic ministers will discuss the plan at a meeting on
\nthe Thai island of Phuket on Thursday and will also hammer out
\nways to increase business cooperation between their essentially
\ncompetetive economies, the officials said.<\/p>\n
\"ASEAN has to go faster and deeper (with tariff cuts) than
\nGATT and APEC. Otherwise ASEAN will have no meaning,\" Kanissorn
\nNavanugraha, a deputy director general in the Thai Commerce
\nMinistry, said at a briefing.<\/p>\n
The 18-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum
\nintends to set up a Pacific rim free trade area by 2020,
\nthreatening to eclipse the more modest ASEAN free trade area
\n(AFTA).<\/p>\n
The scheme by APEC, which includes all six ASEAN countries as
\nwell as their two main trade partners, the United States and
\nJapan, has injected a sense of urgency into ASEAN's
\ndeliberations.<\/p>\n
Economic ministers from the southeast Asian six -- Brunei,
\nIndonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand --
\nagreed in September to speed up implementation of their trade
\nplan, cutting the timetable from 15 to 10 years.<\/p>\n
\"ASEAN countries want to firm up the momentum for AFTA ...
\nThey're serious in establishing firm guideposts to implement the
\nfree trade concept in ASEAN,\" one senior Philippine diplomat told
\nReuters this week.<\/p>\n
To press ahead with their plan for AFTA, the ASEAN ministers
\nalso agreed in September to cut tariffs steadily so that by
\nJanuary 1, 2003, not less than 85 percent of goods traded among
\nthe six members will face tariffs of zero to five percent.<\/p>\n
ASEAN hopes its ambitious AFTA scheme will not only
\nfacilitate intra-ASEAN trade but also entice more investment from
\nabroad.<\/p>\n
But skeptics of the ASEAN vision point out that the six
\neconomies do not really complement each other and are in fact in
\ncompetition, which defeats the purpose of AFTA altogether.<\/p>\n
Only 18 percent of trade in the region is intra-ASEAN although
\nofficials estimate once AFTA is in place the increased incentives
\nwill boost that figure to 25 percent.<\/p>\n
The inclusion of unprocessed agricultural goods on the AFTA
\ntax-cut list, which previously included only industrial goods, is
\nlikely to be a main topic in Phuket, officials said.<\/p>\n
\"We, Thailand, are an agricultural country. We expect every
\ncountry will try to reduce the tariff on all agricultural
\nproducts, or as much as they can,\" said Kannisorn.<\/p>\n
\"We want to push ahead with reduction of tariffs on
\nagricultural products as much as we can,\" he said.<\/p>\n
But while agriculturally-strong Thailand wants to see the
\nbarriers to unprocessed agricultural goods fall, some of its
\nASEAN partners are anxious to protect their farm sectors and
\nwould be more reluctant to see tariffs disappear so fast.<\/p>\n
\"We and Indonesia are the laggards,\" the Philippine diplomat
\nsaid. \"Our volume of exports cannot match the others.\"<\/p>\n
Another issue likely to figure in this week's talks is the
\ninclusion of Vietnam as ASEAN's seventh member.<\/p>\n
\"There is no question Vietnam will join ASEAN but will it join
\nin all the economic cooperation or not?\" said Kannisorn. \"Vietnam
\nmay not be ready, or some ASEAN countries may not be ready, to
\nlet Vietnam join AFTA.\"<\/p>",
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