Is ASEM a new trade group?
Is ASEM a new trade group?
By Philip McClellan
BANGKOK (AFP): A landmark summit here this week bringing
together leaders from 25 Asian and European countries could be
the first step toward a new era in liberalized trade to challenge
U.S. influence in the region.
The Thai hosts of the Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) have said
that freeing up economic contacts between the continents will be
the goal of the two-day meeting, and that formal trade and
investment agreements may not be far off.
Thailand has even hinted that the summit could set the stage
for a trade liberalization arrangement -- possibly by 2010 --
between Asia and Europe similar to the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum.
"APEC is operating on an MFN (most favored nation) basis, on
non-discriminatory principles," Thai Deputy Prime Minister Amnuay
Virawan said. "We would like to see Europe promote economic
regionalism in the same manner."
Such an arrangement would be welcomed by European countries
anxious to harness Asian economies moving ever closer to the
United States as a result of their joint membership in APEC.
"It's normal that we should be impatient to try to pry open
those (Asian) markets because we are ready in the starting
blocks," said Daniel Descoutures, charge d'affairs at the EU
Commission in Bangkok.
Financial services and telecommunications were two key sectors
the Europeans were eager to penetrate in Asia, he said. Both
sectors have been closely guarded by most Asian countries behind
a regulatory thicket.
However, despite European enthusiasm, many Asian countries are
wary about adding ASEM to the many acronyms already cluttering
the region -- as well as having to cope with sticky issues such
as human rights that invariably crop up in their contacts with
the West.
"We don't want anything to be institutionalized, with the EU
or anybody else," Malaysian International Trade and Industry
Minister Rafidah Aziz said recently. "There is a proliferation of
structures already."
Japan has indicated interest in setting up a formal trading
relationship with the European Union, but -- along with Indonesia
and Malaysia -- has rejected the notion of a timetable to achieve
that aim.
Although trade between East Asia and the European Union has
been increasing at a higher rate than that between East Asia and
the United States, the Europeans are still lagging behind in the
booming region.
Two-way trade between East Asia and the European Union was
worth US$225 billion in 1994, against the $326 billion recorded
in trade between East Asia and the United States, the Japanese
foreign ministry said Tuesday.
Liberalized trade would help Asian firms scale Europe's huge
single market for manufactured goods. The Europeans, meanwhile,
have been eager to move investment to Asia's rapidly growing
economies and tap into its fast-growing markets for sectors such
as financial services and high technology.
However, long-running allegations by both sides of unfair
trading practices mean that neither side is optimistic that the
25 leaders will emerge triumphantly from their huddle with an
economic alliance.
The European side maintains that many Asian countries have
dumped cut-rate products in Europe, ignored widespread
intellectual property violations in Asia and have coddled their
agricultural sectors behind various trade barriers.
China and Vietnam, in particular, have also been the targets
of repeated EU calls to dismantle their formidable tariff
structures.
The Asians, on the other hand, have accused the Europeans of
erecting trade barriers of their own through quotas and unclear
regulations.
Chinese Foreign Trade Minister Wu Yi earlier this month called
on the European Union to abolish "discriminatory and unreasonable
trade policies," citing quotas imposed in 1994 on Chinese imports
ranging from shoes to radios.
The Bangkok summit will bring together leaders and senior
ministers from Brunei, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam -- as
well as from the 15 EU countries.
The EU groups Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands,
Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
Window: Liberalized trade would help Asian firms scale Europe's
huge single market for manufactured goods.