ASEAN urged to speed up single-market formation

Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia joined Singapore and Thailand calling for the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to accelerate full regional economic integration earlier than 2020, a senior official said.

Minister of Trade Mari Elka Pangestu said here on Wednesday ASEAN should eventually come up with an earlier deadline in establishing a European Union-style single market, adding that 2020 was too far away.

"We should do it before the Bogor Goals," Mari said, referring to the goals set out at the 1994 APEC summit in Bogor, West Java, where members pledged to set up a free trade zone for the Asia- Pacific region.

The Bogor goals set a deadline of 2010 for developed countries and 2020 for developing countries to implement the free trade system.

She pointed out that an ASEAN single market would be meaningless if it was established at the same time as an Asia- Pacific free trade area.

"The purpose of having an ASEAN Economic Community is to provide preferential reduction or liberalization (to ASEAN members) ahead of non-ASEAN countries," said Mari, who has just returned from 12th APEC Summit in Chilean capital of Santiago.

She acknowledged that less-developed ASEAN nations would be more reluctant to see the establishment of an ASEAN single market being accelerated, but those countries could be given a later schedule to participate.

According to reports, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra were the main proponents for the accelerated deadline.

ASEAN senior officials kicked off talks in the Laotian capital of Vientiane on Wednesday, which will be followed by a gathering of their foreign ministers on Saturday and a two-day leaders' summit on Monday.

The ASEAN leaders will be joined at their summit by their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand, as the regional grouping seeks closer trade ties with economic powerhouses in Asia Pacific.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Under the Bali Concord II, agreed upon at a summit last year in Bali, the Southeast Asian bloc pledged to establish the ASEAN Economic Community, where there would be a freer flow of goods, services, investment and freer flow of capital, equitable economic development and reduced poverty and socio-economic disparities by 2020.

At that time, the leaders pledged to streamline customs procedures and to adopt shared product standards. To make the task more manageable, they decided to press ahead in 11 "priority sectors", from fisheries to aviation.

They also agreed to set up a monitoring group, to check whether members were living up to their commitments, and a dispute-settlement procedure; measures taken to "remind" member countries that the ASEAN Free Trade Area is a binding agreement.