Southeast Asian trade growing more slowly: Report

Southeast Asian trade growing more slowly: Report

SINGAPORE (DPA): Southeast Asian trade flows are not picking
up as quickly as some officials had hoped with less than a year
to go before the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) comes into full
bloom, a workshop report said on Saturday.

"Intra-trade growth was around 10 percent yearly, smaller than
we had hoped for," Cho Cho Wynn, a senior trade officer at the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretariat said
at the Singapore meeting.

Under the Common Effective Preference Tariff (CEPT) scheme,
AFTA's main driving mechanism, tariffs on a wide range of
products traded will be cut to zero to 5 percent and quotas and
other non-tariff barriers will also be removed.

ASEAN was to turn fully into a free trade area by 2008, but
that date was advanced to next January 1 for the more developed
members of the grouping.

New members have more time with 2006 set for Vietnam, 2008 for
Laos and Myanmar (Burma) and 2010 for Cambodia.

While officials attending the workshop said the pace of intra-
ASEAN trade has quickened since 1993, Efren Leano, an assistant
director of the Tokyo-based ASEAN Centre, said a 50 percent
annual increase in intra-trade had been hoped for.

The workshop on Friday was the last of a series held during
the past two weeks in Jakarta, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and Kuala
Lumpur.

Participants blamed the slower-than-expected growth largely on
lack of awareness about the scheme among manufacturers and
traders.

Intra-ASEAN trade has grown faster than the regional
grouping's trade with the outside world, noted Khong Mun Pew,
director for trade policy at Singapore's Trade Development Board.

The lower tariffs apply to products with at least 40 percent
ASEAN local content. Some products, including rice, sugar, garlic
and meat, have been placed on a "sensitive list" and exempted
from the cuts for the time being.