ASEAN vows to speed up cooperation
ASEAN vows to speed up cooperation
PHUKET, Thailand (Reuter): Economic ministers from the six-
member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) promised
yesterday to speed up industrial cooperation and eliminate
barriers to trade in the region.
"In view of the increasingly competitive global economy and
the rapid industrialization process in ASEAN, the ministers
agreed there is a need to look into new activities and/or schemes
to accelerate industrial cooperation in ASEAN," they said in a
statement.
The statement ended a two-day meeting on the Thai resort
island of Phuket to review implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade
Area (AFTA), scheduled to come into effect by the year 2003.
ASEAN groups Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and
the Philippines.
AFTA will be implemented ahead of a free trade area among the
18-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which
includes all ASEAN members and their two main trade partners, the
United States and Japan, planned for the year 2020.
The ministers agreed to scrap a joint-venture program
providing incentives for certain industries and a brand-to-brand
complementation scheme for the car industry because they were too
bureaucratic.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi told
reporters late on Friday the two programs distorted the market.
He said an AFTA scheme to trim duties on a wide variety of
products to a maximum of five percent by 2003 would be sufficient
incentive for investors in the region.
A framework pact on liberalizing rules on services was also
reached during the meeting, aimed at "realizing a free trade area
in services in the long run", the statement said.
"This (patent and trademark system) will be a novelty to help
secure the protection of ASEAN citizens," Supachai said.
ASEAN ministers said a consultative meeting with Australia and
New Zealand on possible closer economic relations should be held
during an ASEAN economic ministerial meeting scheduled for
September, 1995.
The ministers, however, were stymied in trimming a list of
unprocessed agricultural products.
ASEAN officials said they were toiling to remove more than
2,500 products currently covered by tariff barriers.
Under AFTA, each country will submit a list of industrial
products and manufactures on which tariff barriers will be
lowered to at least five percent by the year 2003.
Malaysia has submitted a list of more than 100 goods, the
largest in ASEAN, on which it does not want tariff duties
removed. Indonesia has the smallest number of products on that
list with 27. The rest have listed 30 or 50.
The six countries want to boost intra-ASEAN trade, which
currently stands at 18 percent of total trade in the region.
Implementation of AFTA should boost it to 25 percent.