ASEAN economic ministers to push for FTA with Australia, New Zealand

ASEAN economic ministers to push for FTA with Australia, New Zealand

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Southeast Asia's economic ministers said on Wednesday they
would urge their leaders to finally broker a free trade agreement
with Australia and New Zealand.

The economics ministers, meeting for one day here, will also
recommend the leaders of Australia and New Zealand attend the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) annual summit in
Laos this year.

"The economics ministers will be recommending to ASEAN leaders
that we should work on the launch of a free trade agreement with
Australia and New Zealand," Singapore Trade Minister George Yeo
told reporters after the meeting.

The declaration from the economics ministers that they are
willing to embrace Australia and New Zealand signals a potential
breakthrough for the two nations after years of trying to forge
closer trade links with the region.

Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong has been a strong
advocate of including Australia and New Zealand in ASEAN's free
trade plans.

But he acknowledged publicly last year that there were some
within ASEAN who believed that "Australians are not regarded as
indigenous Asians", and therefore did not want close economic
ties with Australia.

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was one
fierce opponent of Australia forging close political and economic
ties with ASEAN, and his step-down from power last year may have
been a significant factor in the regional grouping's new-found
inclusiveness.

ASEAN, which hopes to have its own FTA beginning 2010 and a
European-style single market 10 years later, currently only has
free-trade plans with China, South Korea and India.