'FTA a building block for ASEAN'

'FTA a building block for ASEAN'

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

A free-trade agreement (FTA) basically agreed to between Japan
and Singapore can be a building block for a wider accord covering
Tokyo and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), an
official said over the weekend.

Singapore Trade Minister George Yeo met with his Japanese
counterpart Takeo Hiranuma on the sidelines of an informal World
Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting here to "celebrate" the
agreement "in principle and in substance" reached by negotiators
in Tokyo.

"We are here to celebrate the final agreement that we have
reached in principle and in substance on the economic partnership
agreement between Japan and Singapore," Yeo told reporters after
the meeting.

"Negotiations were difficult but amicably settled," he said.

A few remaining issues are expected to be resolved before a
meeting between Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan on the sidelines of the
annual Asia-Pacific leaders' summit in Shanghai, China next week.

The pact, formally called the Japan-Singapore Economic
Agreement for a New Age Partnership, is expected to be signed by
the end of the year.

Yeo said he hoped the agreement "will eventually lead to
greater economic integration between Japan and Southeast Asia."

He allayed concerns by some of Singapore's Southeast Asian
neighbors that other countries would use FTAs to gain backdoor
entry into the ASEAN market.

"The rules of origin will not allow that... In fact, what we
have achieved today provides a building block for something
bigger and more interesting for all of Southeast Asia in its
relationship with Japan."

Hiranuma said the agreement is the first FTA by Japan, the
world's second largest economy which had previously favored
multilateral pacts in bodies such as the WTO.