ASEAN-EU discuss greater trade opportunities

ASEAN-EU discuss greater trade opportunities

Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Economic ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) agreed to work on an action plan to accelerate
integrating the region's economies in a bid to boost trade and
investments.

Indonesia's Minister of Industry and Trade Rini Soewandi said
that the ASEAN economic ministers would meet again in April in
Singapore to further finalize the plan.

She was speaking to reporters at the end of a two-day Asean
Economic Ministers meeting here on Tuesday.

In October, ASEAN leaders agreed to integrate the region's
economies to become an European-style single market economy by
2020 by gradually implementing various economic liberalization
measures.

This plan is aimed at boosting trade activities in the region
(which has some 530 million people and growing) and increase the
region's attractiveness as an investment destination,
particularly in competing with giant Asian economies
China and India.

But ASEAN now wants to accelerate the integration process
sooner to before 2010 particularly in 11 leading industries
including wood, rubber, automotive, textile, electronics,
agriculture, information technology, fisheries, health care, air
travel and tourism.

Indonesia will be in charge of designing an action plan for
the automotive and wood sectors.

"We need to achieve this fast and smoothly because now the
world has been divided into regional blocs, in Africa, the
Americas and the European Union, which is expanding with an
additional 10 members in May," she told reporters.

"We have decided to finalize a road map, which, among other
things, calls for harmonization of standards and customs
procedures."

She said ministers were hopeful that some of the 11 sectors
could achieve integration before 2005.

Intra-ASEAN trade has been relatively low at around 21 percent
of the region's total trade each year despite the implementation
of the Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA) last year. This is partly
because of lingering non-tariff trade barriers. The intra-
regional trade value could potentially increase to 40 percent.
In comparison, intra-regional trade in the European Union trade
bloc reached 70 percent.

The ASEAN ministers on Tuesday also met European Union Trade
Commissioner Pascal Lamy to discuss the EU's initiative for
economic cooperation with ASEAN, dubbed the Trans-Regional EU-
ASEAN Trade Initiative (TREATI).

In a joint statement, the ministers and Lamy said they were
working on key priority areas such as trade facilitation and
promotion, investment and technical barriers to trade.

Trade between the two regions has showed signs of recovery as
trade value during the first half of last year increased by 7.6
percent to US$35.7 billion compared to the same period in 2002.
The trade value fell by 1.99 percent in 2002 and by 3.4 percent
in 2001.

Meanwhile, Lamy said he and the ministers agreed that stalled
negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) should resume
as soon as possible.