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)