ASEAN to push for FTA with Australia, NZ
ASEAN to push for FTA with Australia, NZ
Reuters, Singapore
In a policy shift brought about partly by changing political
winds in Malaysia, Southeast Asia on Wednesday proposed launching
free trade talks with Australia and New Zealand by the end of the
year.
Economic ministers of the 10-member Association of South East
Asian Nations recommended that the two countries' leaders be
invited to ASEAN's annual summit in Laos in November to launch
the talks.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who stepped
down in October, had prickly relations with Australia for more
than a decade and opposed closer relations with a country he
regarded as more European than Asian.
Australia, whose two-way trade with ASEAN totaled US$26
billion in 2002/03, has long sought a free trade pact with ASEAN
but had to settle in 2001 for talks on a closer economic
partnership -- a looser trade framework shorn of tariff cuts.
But Cambodian Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said times had
changed. "The situation is much more favorable than in previous
years," Cham told reporters after chairing a day-long meeting.
Apart from Mahathir's handover of power to Abdullah Badawi,
Indonesia's forthcoming presidential election also favored the
launch of free trade talks, he said.
Indonesia, too, has periodically had prickly relations with
Australia, but Cham said political parties could use the
prospective free trade talks as a plank in a pro-growth platform.
ASEAN's initiative follows a visit to Canberra last week by
the group's secretary-general, Ong Keng Yong, who picked up
positive signals about Australia's desire to strengthen ties
through a free trade pact, Singapore trade minister George Yeo
said.
Yeo played down the catalytic impact of Mahathir's departure
on what he called the "change of mood" toward a trade deal. Yeo
emphasized instead the need to weave another strand in a
thickening web of country-to-country and regional market-opening
deals in the Asia-Pacific region.
"I'm not saying that the leadership change is unimportant, but
if you look at it from the viewpoint of the way the world is
going and the way the economic pieces are going, this is a
natural next step for us to take," Yeo said.
ASEAN is negotiating free trade deals with China, Indian and
Japan that are due to go into force in 2010, 2011 and 2012
respectively. Yeo said it was too early to say when an agreement
with Australia and New Zealand might take effect.
Testy relations between Malaysia and Australia date back to a
diplomatic row in 1993, when former Labor prime minister Paul
Keating branded Mahathir as "recalcitrant" for not attending the
first Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Seattle.
Shortly before he stepped down, Mahathir branded Australian
Prime Minister John Howard a regional bully and told him to stop
meddling in others' affairs.
Australia already has bilateral free trade agreements with two
ASEAN nations, Singapore and Thailand. The other ASEAN members
are Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Cambodia,
Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.