Australia focuses on aviation links with Singapore, trade talks with ASEAN
Australia focuses on aviation links with Singapore, trade talks with ASEAN
Wee Sui Lee Associated Press Singapore
Australia is eager to sign a free trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and wants to expand civil aviation links with Singapore, Australia's prime minister said on Tuesday.
Talks on an open skies agreement between Australia and Singapore are underway, John Howard said at a news conference with his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong.
"It involves vigorous bargaining on both sides to make things work," Howard said.
Singapore and Canberra expanded bilateral aviation links in September 2003, but stopped short of signing an open skies agreement that would have given Singapore Airlines Ltd. unfettered access to profitable trans-Pacific routes out of Australia.
Australia's flag carrier, Qantas Airways Ltd., objected to such an agreement, saying the domestic airline industry should be given a chance to recover first.
At a conference hosted by the Australian Chamber of Commerce, Howard told businessmen that "our region has seen many success stories ... through the embracing of globalization."
Australia has signed free trade agreements with Singapore, the United States and Thailand. A similar deal with the 10-member ASEAN grouping would give it greater access to a market of nearly 500 million people.
At a Southeast Asian summit in Laos in November, Australia signed an accord with ASEAN to launch talks in early 2005, aiming for trade pacts within two years.
"This is the part of the world where we relate most in the geographical and strategic sense," Howard said on Tuesday. He said ASEAN would in turn benefit from Australia's strong relationships with Europe and the United States.
ASEAN, consisting of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, already has its own free trade zone. Australia and New Zealand are linked by a similar free trade deal.