'AFTA is on the track'

'AFTA is on the track'

Rodolfo C. Severino, Jr, has served as the ASEAN Secretary-
General for ... years since .... The former ... shared his view
in an interview over the promising AFTA economic cooperation,
which is expected to turn this region into an integrated
production base and a market of 500 million people.

Question: What do you see as ASEAN's major accomplishment in
its 35-year history?

Answer: ASEAN has helped keep the peace among its member-states.
It has done this by providing a forum and a framework in which
positive relationships among the countries of Southeast Asia are
formed.

The necessity of regional cooperation and integration in an
increasingly interconnected global economy has given each country
in Southeast Asia a vital stake in the others' stability and
prosperity. Closer integration among the economies of Southeast
Asia in ASEAN has made them more competitive than they would
otherwise have been.

ASEAN cooperation in a wide range of areas -- from the
environment to information technology to communicable diseases to
transnational crime, and now terrorism -- has developed a sense
of community, at least among the governments of the region. The
habit of consultation built up over the years has amplified the
voice of each member-state in international forums.

Through the ASEAN Regional Forum, ASEAN has engaged powers
with important roles in East Asia in consultations on regional
security issues, thus contributing to regional stability.

Q: What is the relevance of ASEAN in today's Asia?

A: The combination of the end of the Cold War, the march of
globalization, the rise of China's power and influence and the
surge of its economy, and the shifts in Japan's position could be
a factor for instability in East Asia.

ASEAN has helped maintain East Asian stability in these times
of flux by helping keep Southeast Asia stable and standing as an
example of regional stability through regional cooperation.

ASEAN has engaged the major East Asian and other powers in the
region's development through the ASEAN dialog system and in its
security through the ASEAN Regional Forum.

ASEAN has enabled each Southeast Asian country to play an
influential role in the affairs of East Asia. ASEAN has fostered
cooperation with China, Japan and the Republic of Korea in the
ASEAN+3 process and through the dialog system and ARF and, in so
doing, helped bring the countries of East Asia together. China,
Japan and Korea have used the ASEAN+3 forum to develop
consultations and cooperation among themselves. ASEAN is at the
hub of the network of currency swap arrangements in East Asia
that is meant to foster financial stability in the region. ASEAN
has spearheaded the formation of linkages between East Asia and
Europe and between East Asia and Latin America.

Q: What is the relevance of AFTA in today's global trading
environment?

A: ASEAN is integrating the regional economy principally through
the ASEAN Free Trade Area. At the same time, ASEAN countries and
ASEAN itself remain open to global trade, as they have been from
the time of ASEAN's founding. ASEAN countries, collectively and
individually, have thus been plugged into the global trading
system.

ASEAN has supported the launch of a new round of multilateral
trade negotiations in WTO, while insisting that the results be
fair and balanced, that the developed countries fulfill the
commitments made in previous rounds, and that the interests of
developing countries be taken into account.

ASEAN has been seeking to strengthen its trading and other
economic relationships with China, Japan, Korea, and Australia
and New Zealand, even as the United States and the European Union
remain important economic partners. AFTA, a market of half a
billion people, can thus be considered a major building block of
the global trading system.

Q: What are the main obstacles facing AFTA in today's
recessionary Asia?

A: AFTA is on track. AFTA's accelerated schedule for the first
six signatories to the agreement has already been achieved, with
95.7 percent of the intra-ASEAN trade in goods now with tariffs
of no more than five percent or none at all. ASEAN has to move
on, beyond the 1 January 2002 AFTA milestone. Member-countries
have to move faster toward their targets for abolishing tariffs
among themselves. They have to progress expeditiously toward zero
tariffs. Beyond tariffs, they have to streamline customs
procedures and harmonize product standards. They have to move
faster in their negotiations on trade in services. They have to
strengthen transport linkages -- land, air and sea. They have to
embark on extra efforts to bring the development level of the
newer members closer to that of the older members. They have to
work together on telecommunications and information technology.
All these ASEAN is working on. But it has to do more to make AFTA
and ASEAN itself better known in the international business
community and to the public at large.