SE Asian ministers back EU call for WTO round<\/p>\n
BANGKOK (Agencies): Southeast Asian economic ministers on
\nFriday threw their weight behind the European Union's call for a
\nnew round at the World Trade Organization (WTO) with more
\nemphasis on the problems faced by the developing world.<\/p>\n
\"The ministers supported the launch, at the earliest
\nopportunity, of a new round of WTO trade negotiations and agreed
\nfor the need for a broad and balanced agenda reflecting the
\ninterests of all WTO members, particularly the developing
\ncountries,\" said a joint statement issued by the ASEAN economic
\nministers and EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.<\/p>\n
The EU was invited for the first time to attend the 32nd
\nannual economic ministers meeting of the Association of Southeast
\nAsian Nations (ASEAN) which was held this year in Chiang Mai,
\nnorthern Thailand which concluded on Friday.<\/p>\n
The ASEAN ministers raised several of their concerns with the
\nEU, such as how its membership expansion may effect the E.U's
\nagricultural reforms, and means for intensifying economic
\ncooperation between the two blocs.<\/p>\n
In particular, ASEAN backed the EU's call for a new round of
\nWTO trade talks, stalled since the failed talks in Seattle last
\nDecember.<\/p>\n
Thai Commerce Minister Supachai Panickpakdi, who chaired the
\nASEAN-EU meeting Friday, noted that the EU's \"strong agenda\" for
\nthe next round of WTO talks \"comes close to the agenda of the
\ndeveloping countries in general\".<\/p>\n
The ministers noted that ASEAN-EU trade had reached US$89.9
\nbillion in 1999.<\/p>\n
Despite the calls for intensifying ASEAN-EU economic
\ncooperation, Lamy noted that the EU foreign ministers had yet to
\ndecide whether they will go ahead with a planned ASEAN-EU
\nministerial meeting in Vientiane, Laos, in December.<\/p>\n
He told a press conference that the EU was still pondering
\nwhether to cancel attendance at Vientiane in protest against
\nMyanmar's recent crackdown on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.<\/p>\n
The ASEAN-EU joint consultative committee parley has been
\nderailed since 1997 amid ASEAN insistence that Myanmar
\nparticipate, and the EU's refusal to sit at the same table with
\nthe pariah regime.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year the EU agreed to go ahead with the meeting,
\nwith Myanmar on board, after slapping more sanctions on the
\njunta.<\/p>\n
But the crackdown on Suu Kyi and her National League for
\nDemocracy (NLD) followers in August and September, after they
\ntried to leave the capital, has made the EU reconsider.<\/p>\n
\"It's premature to say whether we will go,\" said Lamy.<\/p>\n
EU officials said the meeting was actually likely to go ahead,
\nalthough the Europeans hoped to use their attendance to put
\npressure on Myanmar to lift restrictions on Suu Kyi who has been
\nunder virtual house arrest since September 22.<\/p>\n
Lamy also said ASEAN should not be compared to the European
\nUnion.<\/p>\n
\"We should refrain from any sort of comparison because the
\nparameters are extraordinarily different,\" he told reporters on
\nthe sides of the ASEAN economic ministers meeting in this
\nnorthern Thai city.<\/p>\n
\"We started this (EU process) 50 years ago under very specific
\nconditions ... For the sake of discussions, let's take the
\nEuropean Union as it was like ASEAN 10-15 years (ago) -- some
\nsort of an idea that regional groupings were meaningful in
\ntomorrow's world,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"So we should not benchmark ASEAN vis-a-vis the European Union
\nbecause 50 years of history has changed things totally.\"<\/p>\n
But he said a common thread between the two groups was the
\ndesire to integrate \"given that we are in a market where economy
\nsize is one of the key rules of the game.\"<\/p>",
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