ASEAN hails China WTO deal

ASEAN hails China WTO deal

JAKARTA (AFP): The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) on Tuesday welcomed the trade pact between China and the
United States, and expressed hope it would lead to Beijing's
admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In a statement issued at ASEAN headquarters here the
organization's secretary general, Rodolfo Severino, said that
ASEAN had since 1997 supported not only China's membership of the
WTO, but also the admission of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

That call had been made at the ASEAN summit in Manila in
December of 1997, the statement said.

Severino also said that in October of this year he had said
that ASEAN, whose members have been buffeted over the past two
years by the regional economic crisis, welcomed the further
liberalization of world trade at a time of Southeast Asia's
incipient recovery from the crisis.

Severino predicted that ASEAN would benefit particularly from
a significant liberalization of world trade in food and
agricultural products, the freer movement of persons, and the
lowering of tariffs on labor-intensive manufactured products.