ASEAN 'to accelerate' free trade links outside region

ASEAN 'to accelerate' free trade links outside region

SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AFP): Southeast Asian economic ministers
agreed Thursday to accelerate efforts to expand free trade links
with their northern and southern neighbors in order to protect
themselves from the US-induced global slowdown.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministers
also unveiled a new scheme for wealthier ASEAN members to give
trade preferences to poorer colleagues to reduce the wide
economic disparity in the 10-nation regional bloc.

The ASEAN General System of Preference scheme however will
have to be negotiated on a bilateral basis.

Thai Commerce Minister Adisai Bodharamik, who chaired the
meeting, said these initiatives "reduce the risks to ASEAN of the
looming global economic slowdown."

He said the ministers have formed a working group to negotiate
with dialogue partners China, Japan and South Korea, as well as
Australia and New Zealand on the possibility of enhancing
economic links through more open trade.

"We realize that growth of economic links with our neighbors
-- particularly in Northeast Asia -- is vital to our long-term
growth and development," he told reporters.

The working group has already met with officials from China to
study the implications of Beijing's entry into the World Trade
Organization (WTO) and explore the possibility of an ASEAN-China
Free Trade Area -- a potential market of 1.7 billion peopled.

ASEAN is also discussing with Japan about the formation of a
body of experts to study the setting up of a similar free trade
arrangement with Tokyo, which is currently negotiating a free
trade agreement with Singapore.

The working group is scheduled to meet with senior officials
from Australia and New Zealand "to finalize the parameters of the
closer economic partnership between the two regions," Adisai
said.

On Friday, the ASEAN ministers will meet with Chinese Minister
for Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng and South
Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Hwang Doo-yun as
well as with a representative from Japan.

The meetings are under the ASEAN plus three dialogue process.

In a speech opening the meeting earlier Thursday, Cambodian
Prime Minister Hun Sen said the gathering was being held at a
crucial juncture as ASEAN's export-driven economies reel from the
impact of the slowdown in the US and Japanese economies and the
downturn in the global electronics sector.

While Southeast Asian economies have recovered from the
financial crisis in 1997 and 1998, "the global outlook for 2001
is becoming significantly more adverse," he said.

He asked the ministers to "discuss ways to sustain the
recovery of ASEAN economies, to build up business and investor
confidence and to mitigate the impact" of China's emergence as a
formidable competitor once it joins the WTO.

Political troubles in the region, such as those gripping the
Philippines and Indonesia, have driven investors to safer havens
such as China and the emerging Indian market, analysts say.

ASEAN groups economic backwaters Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and
Vietnam with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand.

To narrow the economic divide, the ministers agreed to
increase trade between the poorer and richer ASEAN members
through a System of General Preference.

Under this scheme, the six more developed members will agree
to give trade preferences to their less developed neighbors, but
such arrangements would only be undertaken on a bilateral basis.

The ministers also agreed to accelerate the implementation of
an ambitious program to electronically link the 10 ASEAN member
countries, including increased commercial transactions, through
the Internet.