ASEAN to extend measures on free trade

ASEAN to extend measures on free trade

JAKARTA (JP): Agricultural produce and a wide range of
services may be included in the trade liberalization measures the
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are
to adopt in 2003, Coordinating Minister for Production and
Distribution Hartarto said yesterday.

He said at the council meeting of the ASEAN Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (ASEAN-CCI) that the integration of
agricultural produce and services into the trade liberalization
program will be discussed at the next meeting of the ASEAN Free
Trade Area (AFTA) Council in Singapore next Monday.

ASEAN, under its AFTA agreement, is committed to liberalizing
trade among its members by the year 2003 under a Common Effective
Preferential Tariff scheme.

ASEAN currently includes Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Cambodia, Laos and
Myanmar are expected to join by the year 2000.

"Services will also be included (in the AFTA arrangements) and
these will cover a wide range of service activities ranging from
the financial sector, broad-base transportation,
telecommunications and other services," Hartarto told the
meeting, which was also attended by the ASEAN Secretary-General
Adjit Singh, outgoing ASEAN-CCI chairman Razali Bin Johari and
Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(Kadin) Aburizal Bakrie.

About one hundred executives from ASEAN countries participated
in yesterday's meeting. Today's proceedings include an address
from President Soeharto at the State Palace before the formal
appointment of Aburizal as the new ASEAN-CCI chairman.

Hartarto said yesterday that Indonesia, which will chair both
the ASEAN economic ministers committee and ASEAN-CCI this year,
should make concerted efforts to promote trade cooperation among
the association's members.

Aburizal said that in 2003, intra-ASEAN trade will probably
break the US$100 billion mark, roughly double the 1995 trade
level. The freer trade measures are expected to further boost
intra-ASEAN trade to $150 billion by 2010.

He acknowledged that intra-ASEAN trade is still too small,
consisting of only about 2 percent of the world's total exports
of $4 trillion in 1995.

Hartarto said that the trade liberalization in ASEAN is
expected to improve the consolidation of businesses among its
members.

"ASEAN businesspeople, therefore, need to build up the synergy
of their business activities in all sectors, including
agriculture, industry and services, to face the trade
liberalization of the Asia Pacific Economic cooperation (APEC)
forum," he said.

APEC has been committed to liberalizing trade and investment
by the year 2010 for its developed member economies and by 2020
for its developing members.

Besides the ASEAN members, excluding Vietnam, APEC also
includes Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Japan,
Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Taiwan, and
the United States.

"The developed members of APEC will have lowered their tariffs
to a range of between zero percent and 5 percent by 2010,"
Hartarto said. (kod)