Tariffs on farm goods set to fall

Tariffs on farm goods set to fall

SINGAPORE (Reuter): ASEAN agriculture ministers agreed yesterday to lower tariffs on 62 percent of commodities traded in the region from January 1 1996 to help realize the grouping's plan of free trade in the region by 2003.

But they failed to agree on lower tariffs on key commodities, such as grains and edible oils, and decided to work with ASEAN economic ministers, who will meet in Brunei next month, to deal with the issue.

"The ministers were satisfied with the progress on the inclusion of unprocessed agricultural products into the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)," the ministers said in a statement after two days of talks here.

"The ministers agreed to the immediate inclusion of 1,304 tariff lines into the CEPT scheme and noted that tariff reduction on these products is scheduled to be implemented on January 1, 1996," the statement added.

ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and newcomer Vietnam.

ASEAN secretary-general Ajit Singh told reporters the 1,304 items accounted for 62 percent of total agricultural products traded in the region.

He said member states would be asked to submit a list of commodities to be excluded from the tariff cuts before the Brunei meeting.

"The economic ministers will have to work out a mechanism on how to deal with these sensitive items," he said.

The tariff reductions would be part of the AFTA plan aimed for implementation by 2003. Under the scheme, which began in 1993 with manufactured items, tariffs will be cut to between zero and five percent by 2003.

Singapore's National Development Minister Lim Hng Kiang told a joint news conference that member states should take steps to move regional trade liberalization forward.

"Of course if the (number of) items on the sensitive list get too large, then this will slow down the intention of ASEAN to move the AFTA forward," he said.

But some member countries, like Malaysia, have asked for more time to make the adjustments.

Malaysian Agriculture Minister Sulaiman Daud told the meeting on Thursday that the inclusion of sensitive products would "affect the livelihood of our farmers and our efforts towards downstream processing of agricultural commodities, as well as development of resource-based industries in member countries".

The ministers also called for stepped up cooperation in the production of corn and soybean to help trim reliance on imports.

They noted that there had been rising imports of corn and soybean, used as a feedmeal, to cater to the expanding poultry and livestock industries.

The ministers said the grouping is self sufficient in rice and sugar.

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