ASEAN, major partners to hold trade talks

Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Trade ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plan to hold a four-day meet in the capital starting Sept. 2 to discuss ways to boost regional trade.

The officials are also slated to meet with their counterparts from the grouping's major trading partners -- Japan, China, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, the European Union and the United States -- to seek ways to boost trade and accelerate economic integration.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade's director general of international cooperation, Pos M. Hutabarat, said on Wednesday that the 36th ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) meeting would be crucial, as intra-ASEAN trade had progressed very slowly.

He pointed out that intra-ASEAN trade accounted for only 23 percent, or about US$84 billion, of the regional grouping's 2003 exports. When the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) concept was first introduced in 1993, regional trade accounted for 18 percent of exports.

In comparison, regional trade in the European Union accounted for 75 percent of total trade, while regional trade reached 35 percent in Mercosur, a South American economic group comprising Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Bolivia.

Pos said the main reason for the low trade in ASEAN was that many member countries had similar resources and products.

Another problem was that ASEAN countries applied different product standards, such as clothing sizes and voltage for electronics.

ASEAN leaders have warned that the potential for an integrated market of the region's 500 million people would be lost without urgent action.

At a summit last year in Bali, the leaders pledged to streamline customs procedures and to adopt shared product standards in an effort to boost regional trade.

To make the task more manageable, they decided to press ahead in 11 priority sectors, ranging from fisheries to aviation.

They also agreed to set up a monitoring group to check whether members were living up to their commitments, and establish a dispute-settlement procedure.

According to Pos, member countries would decide at next week's meeting to focus first on several priority sectors and leave the remainder for a later date.

Pos predicted that the meeting would likely focus on the automotive, textile, electronics, information technology, medical equipment, rubber and tourism sectors, and set aside agriculture, fisheries, logging and aviation for future talks.

According to ASEAN Secretariat data, regional exports to the world increased to US$363 billion in 2003 from $321 billion in 2002, but still lower than the $387 billion reached in 2001.