ASEAN members end 2-day meeting on free trade laws

ASEAN members end 2-day meeting on free trade laws

SINGAPORE (AFP): ASEAN member-states ended two days of talks
here yesterday that centered on a legal framework to introduce a
more liberal trade regime within the regional bloc that will
lower tariff and investment barriers.

Singapore parliamentary speaker Tan Soo Khoon said the
meeting, aimed at fine-tuning business laws of ASEAN member
states, would help move the grouping along towards the
establishment of an ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) by 2003.

"It is our task as legislators to ensure that our laws
encourage the swift implementation of AFTA and do not obstruct
it," Tan told the ad hoc committee of the ASEAN Inter-
Parliamentary Organization (AIPO).

"However, our role goes beyond the act of passing these laws.
We must ensure that the private sector, in particular our
businessmen, understand and appreciate these laws," he said.

The committee is charged with the job of pulling together
ASEAN laws related to the implementation of AFTA to serve as a
reference point for businessmen and provide a guideline for
future members of ASEAN, such as Vietnam, on the kind of
legislation they would have to undertake to implement the
agreement.

The committee's report is expected to be considered and
adopted by the 16th AIPO general assembly later this year.

The six-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations groups
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and
Thailand, with Vietnam due to join them soon.

The fourth ASEAN summit in 1992 decided to establish AFTA to
enhance the grouping's global competitiveness.

The summit saw the signing of an agreement on a Common
Effective Preferential Tariff scheme for AFTA with the objective
of liberalizing trade within the regional block through the
reduction of tariff barriers over a 15-year period starting
January 1993.

Timeframe

In 1994, ASEAN economic ministers agreed to reduce the
timeframe to 10 years, saying that an earlier achievement of a
more liberal trading regime would bring greater benefits through
increased trade and investments.

Tan said the success of the initiative would depend on the
response of the region's business community, adding that it was
crucial for the private sector to support the AFTA process.

"The business community will then be able to realize the
tangible benefits of AFTA. This in turn will also lead to the
faster liberalization of trade and investment regimes in the
region," he said.

Intra-ASEAN trade has grown 33 percent from US$82 billion in
1993 to $110 billion in 1994. ASEAN ranks fourth after the United
States, the European Union and Japan in world trade.