ASEM to deal with economic matters
ASEM to deal with economic matters
By Riyadi
BANGKOK (JP): The two-day Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), which will start here tomorrow, is likely to touch on economic issues related to trade, investment and deal with unfinished business from the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations.
In the trade sector, analysts here predicted that leaders of 25 Asian and European countries would emphasize opening each other's markets by further bringing down trade barriers, either tariff or non tariff, within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Europe and Asia are will be working together to prepare for the first ministerial meeting of the WTO, to be held in Singapore in December.
"The Bangkok meeting should make this a priority objective for participating countries. Our senior officials will have to work together informally this summer, so that together we can make preparations for Singapore," the European Commission said in a statement recently.
According to the Japan External Trade Organization, the Asian side's biggest hope for the ASEM is that it will help pave the way for a boost in exports to the European Union (EU).
The Asian participants at the ASEM are the seven members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- as well as China, Japan and South Korea.
They particularly want to encourage their EU counterparts to launch market-opening measures similar to those being pursued by members of the Asia-pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
The 10 Asian countries which form an integral part of the APEC forum and pursues a non-discriminatory principles and would like to see Europe promote economic regionalism in the same manner.
The European side, on the other hand, is seeking to boost investment in Asia as the EU's investment in the region is lagging behind.
Foreign direct investment from the EU represented 10 percent of East Asia's total foreign investment between 1986 and 1992.
The European participants are the 15 members of the EU -- Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
Investment is likely to be high up on the agenda. The European side has indicated that it is anxious to establish international rules to reduce barriers to investment worldwide and it is seeking Asian support for the creation of such rules.
In addition to trade and investment, there is also room for Europe and Asia to coordinate views on liberalizing telecommunications networks and maritime transports -- two items left over from the Uruguay Round of talks under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
ASEM also offers a forum to explore future trade talks regarding industrial standards, intellectual property rights, trade-related taxes, rules of origin, customs procedures and competition policies -- both within the framework of the WTO and on a bilateral basis between Europe and Asia.
As well as these issues, many analysts have predicted that a number of Asian countries will raise the question of dumping, claiming as they do that EU anti-dumping duties were impeding their exports.
The EU, however, rejected the claim that the EU's anti-dumping policy is protectionist, saying that anti-dumping is a legitimate trade policy measure, and indeed has been used by all major trading countries. It also pointed out that Europe's anti-dumping rules follow those of the WTO very closely.
A Thai official has said that contentious issues such as anti- dumping measures and copyright violations are likely to take a backseat.