ASEAN, CER sign accord on standards

ASEAN, CER sign accord on standards

JAKARTA (JP): Economic ministers of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and countries of the Australia-
New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (CER)
signed here yesterday a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on
cooperation in standards and conformance of products.

"This is the first MOU between the two free trade areas, which
represents a considerable achievement in a short span of time,"
Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Production and Distribution
Hartarto said after the second informal consultation meeting
between ASEAN and CER yesterday.

Hartarto, who chaired the two regions' meeting jointly with
New Zealand Minister for Trade Negotiations Philip Burdon, told
the press that the MOU will provide a framework of cooperation on
standards and conformance of products between the two regions.

He said that during their consultative meeting, the ministers
discussed international economic issues, including those related
to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum.

The ASEAN and CER ministers reaffirmed their commitments to
the multilateral trading system and the need to reinforce the
process of liberalization within the WTO framework.

"This has been the basis on which ministers decided to
establish the linkages between our two free trade areas,
reflecting the open regionalism concept of the ASEAN Free Trade
Area (Afta) and CER," Hartarto said.

He noted that trade between the two regions grew by 49.8
percent from only US$7.9 billion in 1990 to $15.8 billion last
year. ASEAN bought about 14 percent of CER exports.

Meanwhile, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer, who
is also a trade minister, told reporters yesterday that the
economic ministers of the two regions agreed that the WTO
ministerial meeting in Singapore should discuss only the core
trade issues.

"We agree with the ASEAN approach to stick to the core trade
issues, particularly in relation to labor standards, which are
best dealt with by the International Labor Organization," he
said.

Minister Burdon said that New Zealand also agreed with the
ASEAN approach in the WTO.

ASEAN -- which groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- strongly opposes
the plan of the United States and a number of European countries
to raise non-trade issues, such as labor standards, corruption,
procurement and competition policies, at the WTO's ministerial
meeting in Singapore.

ASEAN and CER ministers also expressed their concern over the
extraterritorial application of recent U.S. legislation which
imposes sanctions on countries or enterprises doing businesses
with Cuba and several other countries.

They also agreed that at their next consultative meeting in
Malaysia next September, they will hold a similar consultation
with the representatives of the private sector from both regions.
(13)

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