ASEAN officials divided on dispute settlement mechanism

JAKARTA (JP): Senior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) got off to a rocky start yesterday at their two-day meeting convened to discuss a proposed ASEAN trade dispute settlement mechanism.

Indonesian and Thai officials said yesterday that the officials could not reach consensus on a number of matters. They agreed to review the proposal with ASEAN's economic ministers on Thursday.

Krirk-Krai Jirapaet, director general of business and economy at the Thai Ministry of Commerce, said that Vietnam was the only country that refused to initial the documents for the proposed dispute settlement body.

"Vietnam's delegates said they had no mandate to sign. I don't know why. Maybe it's a misunderstanding. Maybe they are still not comfortable with it," Jirapaet told journalists during a break.

The two-day meeting is discussing preparations for the ASEAN Free Trade Area Council's meeting here tomorrow and the meeting of economic ministers on Thursday.

The closed meeting is also expected to review the development of AFTA and discuss agriculture issues, a common time zone proposal and the proposed ASEAN trade dispute settlement mechanism.

Rahardjo Jamtomo, director general of the ASEAN department at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said all of the delegations agreed on the idea but differed on the details of the proposed settlement mechanism.

The protocol, first called for during the group's economic meeting in Brunei last year, would seek to settle trade disputes within ASEAN and under AFTA.

"The dispute settlement mechanism will facilitate all agreements in ASEAN, including those on services, intellectual property rights and AFTA," Rahardjo said.

He explained that the arrangement has been modeled along the lines of the arbitration process used by the World Trade Organization (WTO). It will include a period of consultation with senior officials and possibly a panel of experts as well as a mechanism for appealing to ministers of the group.

"The main difference with the WTO is that the process...will be very quick so that it will not burden the disputing countries," Rahardjo said.

He added that disputing parties may be allowed to participate in settlement process, but that the panel of experts will be the most involved.

Among the contentious issues are provisions related to compensation and the extent to which ASEAN countries will be able to use other means of settling disputes apart from the proposed settlement dispute mechanism. (rid)