Thais rejects plan to speed up AFTA

Thais rejects plan to speed up AFTA

MANILA (Reuter): Thailand yesterday thumbed down proposals to speed up the implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) to 2000 instead of the original deadline of 2003.

"What I am suggesting is that any attempt to open up the economy in one fell swoop will incur political costs. Countries need time to adjust and prepare their constituencies for the inevitable," Thai Deputy Prime Minister Amnuay Viravan said in a speech during an international business conference in Manila.

AFTA would trim tariffs on a basket of goods produced by ASEAN countries to a maximum of five percent by 2003. Brunei suggested the timetable be speeded up to 2000.

ASEAN links the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and newcomer Vietnam.

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

But Amnuay said: "Some economies are more open than others, their national interests may therefore be quite different from those of their less open neighbors."

Philippine Trade and Industry Secretary Rizalino S. Navarro backed Viravan.

"We cannot move all items en toto to the year 2000 because there are sensitive items that should have tariff cover until the year 2003," Navarro told Reuters.

In the same speech, Amnuay also pushed for the creation of another growth area in the region covering Thailand's eastern seaboard to encompass Cambodia, Vietnam, southeastern China and Subic Bay in the northern Philippines.

He said those in the proposed growth area could extend investment incentives to other members.

"This would effectively transform the South China Sea into a lake of cooperation rather than a sea of contention," Viravan said, referring to the dispute over the Spratly islands which has triggered tension among claimant nations.

The Spratlys are believed to be rich in oil and gas and are claimed in whole or in part by China, Taiwan and ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.

Amnuay said he will soon broach a formal proposal for the proposed economic zone to the heads of the concerned countries.

"I brought this up in this conference to see whether there's some interest," he said.