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.