Joining the ASEAN club

Joining the ASEAN club

Tuesday night's announcement in Laos that Australia, New Zealand and the ASEAN nations would begin negotiations on a free trade deal was historic, but widely anticipated.

The late-breaking news that we will also be invited back to next year's ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur -- following a 27-year hiatus between our previous invitation and the present one -- was icing on the cake.

Tuesday's breakthroughs have been driven, not by symbols, but by the synergies between the developed economies of Australia and New Zealand and those of Southeast Asia. A comprehensive trade deal will give Australian businesses access to a market of more than 500 million people and a combined annual economy of $720 billion.

Add China to the mix and the numbers become 1.7 billion people producing more than $2.5 trillion worth of goods and services. But while economic interest is the main driver in the bilateral and regional FTAs currently springing up around the world, it is never enough. The ASEAN thaw shows that, despite occasional gaffes over pre-emption, we are well regarded in the neighborhood and our closeness to the US is a plus, not a minus. It also demonstrates that Malaysia, from having been the main obstacle to our closer integration with ASEAN under Mahathir Mohamad, has become the facilitator under Abdullah Badawi. Now there's a powerful piece of symbolism. -- The Australian, Sydney