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.