S'pore voices impatience over ASEAN

S'pore voices impatience over ASEAN

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in remarks published Friday voiced impatience over the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for being slow in building trade links outside of the regional bloc.

Goh, whose country has been spearheading free trade agreements (FTAs) with countries outside the region, said ASEAN was spending too much time looking inwards rather than forging ties with other regional economic groupings.

"We would like ASEAN to move faster," Goh said in remarks published in the Straits Times.

"I'm impatient because I believe Asean is taking a lot of time just looking at ASEAN, whereas it should be looking outside ASEAN," he said, speaking in an interview with the editors of 11 major Asian newspapers who held a meeting here earlier this week.

Goh pointed out that the European Union was expanding membership to cover central and eastern European countries, while the North American Free Trade Agreement was expanding its economic ties with Latin America.

"If Asia is somehow not organized, our trade gets depleted because of our tariffs, and we are not cooperating, then we're going to suffer," he said.

Singapore has forged FTAs with New Zealand and Japan and is negotiating a similar agreement with the United States. It also wants FTAs with Canada, Mexico, Australia and the European Union, among others.

Asked if Singapore was going it alone, Goh said the small but wealthy city-state was playing the role of a "pathfinder to show the way" that free trade pacts were beneficial.

He cited how the Singapore-US FTA currently under negotiations is being worked out to benefit the information technology (IT) sector in the Indonesian islands of Bintan and Batam.

Under a US proposal, IT products produced in the two Indonesian islands near Singapore would be given the same treatment as Singapore-made goods when they enter the American market provided they meet certain standards.

"There is no reason to stop at Indonesia," Goh said.

"I can extend it to Malaysia, Thailand, to the Philippines so that the IT sectors of the ASEAN countries can be part of this FTA," he added.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

While the group offers a market of 500 million consumers, cultural and political differences and wide disparities in economic development have hampered the emergence of a fully integrated market.