ASEAN to discuss Free Trade

ASEAN to discuss Free Trade

Associated Press, Genting Highlands, Malaysia

Southeast Asian trade and economic ministers gathered Friday for
a weekend that blends friendly golf games with discussions about
the region's financial future - including a pact with China that
would create the world's largest free-trade area.

The meeting, at a hill resort 950 meters above sea level, will
focus on boosting economic ties between the 10-member Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its trading partners.

The ministers will also discuss issues related to the World
Trade Organization, and measures to improve economic integration
within Asean and to develop more Southeast Asian conglomerates,
Malaysian officials say.

Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said earlier this week
that the ministers want to debate plans, announced last November,
to expand a Southeast Asian free-trade pact to include China.

ASEAN has agreed to work with China toward creating the free-
trade zone within 10 years. It would be the world's largest, with
a combined market of 1.7 billion people and gross domestic
product of US$2 trillion.

But some countries fear the plan would flood them with cheap
Chinese goods and make Southeast Asia less attractive to foreign
investors.

Rafidah was scheduled to host a working dinner Friday for the
ministers, while talks would formally begin Saturday at the
Genting Highlands resort, 50 kilometers northwest of Kuala
Lumpur.

On Sunday, the ministers will play golf before flying home. No
specific agreements are expected from the three-day meeting,
which has been billed as a retreat.

Asean, founded at the height of the Cold War in 1967 as an
economic grouping of non-communist countries, today comprises
Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The grouping marked one its biggest milestones in January 2002
by inaugurating the Asean Free Trade Area. The accord, hammered
out over the past decade, is seen as a way to lure foreign
investment and revive export-driven economies battered by the
1997-98 Asian economic crisis.

Asean was the world's fastest-growing region economically
before the crisis, but has since seen foreign investment in Asia
migrate northward to China. The grouping has been formalizing
ties with Northeast Asia, and its annual summits now include the
leaders of Japan, China and South Korea.