China, ASEAN eye world's largest FTA
China, ASEAN eye world's largest FTA
P. Parameswaran, Agence France Presse, Bandar Seri Begawan
China's Premier Zhu Rongji and the leaders of Southeast Asia's
10 nations are expected to agree on an ambitious plan to create
the world's largest free-trade zone, officials said Friday.
The decision to give the go-ahead for the ASEAN-China free
trade area (FTA) at a summit meeting here in Brunei next week "is
going to be extremely significant," a Southeast Asian foreign
ministry official told AFP.
"If this is realized, maybe in about 10 years, it will be the
largest FTA in the world with a combined market of nearly two
billion people," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
will have their annual meeting in Brunei's capital on Monday
before meeting their counterparts from China, Japan and South
Korea the next day.
Most of ASEAN, comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam,
will already be part of a free market by 2003 under the
grouping's own liberalization plan.
At the last ASEAN-China summit meeting held in Singapore in
2000, Premier Zhu raised the likelihood of a ASEAN-China free
trade zone as a means to strengthen trade and investment links.
Following the proposal, ASEAN and China, the world's most
populous nation, set up an expert group to study the broader
aspect of their economic relations into the 21st century,
officials said.
The expert group compiled a report which was reviewed by
senior officials of the two sides ahead of the summit.
They recommended the setting up of the ASEAN-China FTA,
covering a market of about 1.7 billion people -- comprising
China's 1.2 billion population and the 500 million inhabitants of
ASEAN's 10 member states, the officials said.
As of 2000, ASEAN and China have a combined gross domestic
product (GDP) of almost US$1.7 trillion and a total external
trade value of nearly $1.3 trillion.
The assistant director of external relations at the Jakarta-
based ASEAN secretariat, S. Pushpanathan, said the proposed free
trade plan reflected the importance China gave to its economic
links with ASEAN.
"ASEAN is the first entity that China wants to have an FTA
with and this augurs well for their economic relations,
especially with China's entry into the World Trade Organization
(WTO)," he told AFP.
Pushpanathan said if the plan went through, it would "inject
confidence in East Asia during this current global economic
slowdown, help to boost trade and investments and improve ASEAN's
economic competitiveness."