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.