Australia and Malaysia to assess free trade deal prospects

Australia and Malaysia to assess free trade deal prospects

Agence France-Presse
Sydney

Australia and Malaysia will examine the possibility of a free
trade agreement on Monday at a meeting of senior government
officials, Trade Minister Mark Vaile's office said.

Vaile will meet his Malaysian counterpart Rafidah Aziz in
Melbourne on Monday at the 11th meeting of the Australia-Malaysia
joint trade committee.

A spokesman for Vaile said Malaysian officials had floated the
possibility of a free trade deal over the past 18 months and the
Melbourne meeting was an opportunity to assess whether to begin
formal negotiations.

"What we'll be able to do is ascertain at a ministerial level
how interested both parties are in pursuing the idea," he told
AFP on Sunday.

Australia has signed free trade agreements with Singapore and
Thailand in the past 18 months and Vaile's office said Canberra
had shown it was serious about its trade relations with Southeast
Asia.

Vaile's spokesman said the ministers would also discuss an
invitation by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
for Australia and New Zealand to begin talks on creating a free
trade zone covering the region.

The 10-nation grouping has invited Australia and New Zealand
to attend its summit in Laos in November, where it is expected to
endorse the idea of including the two nations in a regional free
trade area.

For decades, Australian overtures to ASEAN were rebuffed by
the former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who had a
prickly relationship with Canberra.

Malaysia is Australia's 11th most important export market,
accounting for sales of more than A$2 billion (US$1.44 billion )
a year.

The joint trade committee meets irregularly to discuss ways of
improving trade and investment cooperation between the two
countries. It last met in july 2002.