Thailand wants early start for free trade area

Thailand wants early start for free trade area

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Thailand will push for ASEAN to slash internal trade barriers by the year 2000 instead of the original deadline of 2003 when its leaders meet in Bangkok in December, Singapore state television said yesterday.

State television quoted Thai Deputy Prime Minister Amnuay Virawan as saying in an interview in Bangkok that Thailand was also keen to have a clear timetable for trade liberalization in the services sector in the region.

Amnuay had earlier said Bangkok would not back plans for an earlier deadline.

"What I am suggesting is that any attempt to open up the economy in one fell swoop will incur political costs," he said at a business conference in Manila last month.

"Countries need time to adjust and prepare their constituencies for the inevitable," he said.

The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) plan currently aims to trim tariffs on a basket of goods produced by the seven member countries to a maximum of five percent by 2003.

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

Brunei, which has tariffs under three percent, and Singapore, which has zero duties, have been pushing for the acceleration of AFTA to 2000.

The Philippines and Indonesia have said they would not back the 2000 plan.