New ASEAN states looking to join AFTA

JAKARTA (JP): Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are to submit their inclusion list of products for the Common Effective Preferential Tariffs (CEPT) scheme when they are admitted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in July.

The presentation of the CEPT inclusion list is one of the first steps taken to join the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).

"As a result of the very close contact and assistance we at the secretariat have been giving, we have helped them to draft the initial package offer for the CEPT products," ASEAN Secretary General Dato Ajit Singh said here yesterday.

He added that the three countries had already submitted an indicative inclusion list to ASEAN senior economic officials in April.

"They are supposed to give us the final inclusion list the day they join ASEAN," Singh said here yesterday.

ASEAN is a socioeconomic organization which comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The CEPT is the main instrument designed to make ASEAN a free trade area by 2003. Through the scheme, tariffs of all manufactured goods will be reduced to 5 percent or less. Agricultural products are excluded from the CEPT scheme.

Under the CEPT scheme each ASEAN member draws up a product list whereby goods are divided into: inclusion list, temporary exclusion list, sensitive list and the general exception list.

According to Ajit Singh the prospective members have decided to submit the final product list by the 29th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in October.

As new members, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have a 10-year grace period starting in 1998 before they are fully integrated into AFTA in 2008.

Ajit claimed that all three countries are currently doing their utmost to meet these requirements.

"As far as this AFTA is concerned the preparations they have been undertaking has been quite extensive. In fact they have been working so hard that I'm told that in many of their ministries they've left work aside and are concentrating on fulfilling the various obligations under AFTA," he said.

Myanmar and Laos seem the readiest to comply with the CEPT scheme.

Sixty-eight percent of Myanmar's tariff lines are at 5 percent or less while Laos' has half of its tariff lines at that same level.

Cambodia has only 3.5 percent of its tariff lines at the required 5 percent or less level.

However nearly 45 percent of their tariff level stands at between 6 to 10 percent.

Of the three, only Myanmar is a member of the World Trade Organization.

Ajit Singh yesterday also confirmed that a meeting of ASEAN economic ministers will be held here next week.

The special half-day meeting was called to draft an economic vision for the grouping in the next century. (mds)

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