Talks on for new ASEAN trade bloc<\/p>\n
BANGKOK (AFP): A plan for ASEAN members to form a free-trade
\nbloc with Australia and New Zealand, to counter competition from
\nChina after its entry to the WTO, is gaining support, a report
\nsaid Thursday.<\/p>\n
Thai trade representatives told The Nation newspaper that
\nsenior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
\n(ASEAN) and their two southern neighbors had discussed the idea.<\/p>\n
A taskforce was completing a feasibility study on combining
\nthe ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and the Australia-New Zealand
\nCloser Economic Relations (CER) group, it said.<\/p>\n
The two blocs would have a combined population of 543.5
\nmillion and Gross Domestic Product of US$2,155 billion.<\/p>\n
The proposal is to be taken up at the ASEAN foreign ministers'
\nmeeting in Bangkok later this month and at the group's economic
\nministers' gathering in northern Chiang Mai in October, they
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"We do not want Australia and New Zealand to be isolated
\nbecause they might form a trade link with other regions,
\nparticularly the United States,\" Karun Kittistaporn, the head of
\nThailand's Business Economics Department, told The Nation.<\/p>\n
The report said Thai deputy prime minister Supachai
\nPanitchpakdi had tabled the idea last year. The taskforce has met
\ntwice, and is to gather again in Siem Reap, Cambodia, next month,
\nit said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/talks-on-for-new-asean-trade-bloc-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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