Australia, NZ prioritize ASEAN trade deal

Australia, NZ prioritize ASEAN trade deal

AUCKLAND (Reuters): Australian and New Zealand trade ministers
on Thursday set as a priority the extension of their countries'
existing free trade area to include Southeast Asia.

"We are renewing our commitments to engage with ASEAN
countries with the objective of securing agreement to commence
negotiations on a free trade area of mutual benefit for all
parties," the ministers said in a joint statement released after
their annual bilateral meeting in Auckland.

New Zealand and Australia have an existing agreement on free
trade, called Closer Economic Relations (CER) and New Zealand is
finalizing a similar bilateral arrangement with Singapore.

New Zealand and Australia would co-operate closely in the run
up to a meeting between CER and Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) ministers in Thailand on October 5-7, the
ministers said.

ASEAN has its own free trade area, AFTA, under which ASEAN
members -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- have agreed
to cut tariffs to 0.5 percent by 2003.

An Australian study released in July found gains of US$48.1
billion would flow from a CER/AFTA free trade area.

New Zealand Trade Minister Jim Sutton said bilateral issues
between New Zealand and Australia were becoming less of a focus
between the two neighbors -- although work is under way to align
business laws, and sign an open skies aviation agreement.

"The emphasis increasingly is on how we, as two very closely
integrated economies, can maximize the advantage of our
attractiveness to the rest of the world. What we can do together
now consumes much of our energy rather than what we can still do
between us," Sutton told reporters.