Transit goods arrangement called for

Transit goods arrangement called for

JAKARTA (Kyodo): Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) late Friday agreed on the need for some kind of regional arrangement to govern the transit of goods within ASEAN in three years and are expected to toss the idea to their economic ministers for fleshing out, ASEAN officials said.

Thai Deputy Prime Minister Amnuay Viravan, who is concurrently foreign minister, explained to reporters that he proposed such a regional arrangement under which sealed goods are not opened in transit, flow on a fixed route, and are moved without tax and tariffs.

The agreement is needed as ASEAN opens its borders to trade under the ASEAN Free Trade Area, he said.

Amnuay said he proposed the idea during the informal dinner of ASEAN ministers hosted by Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and the ministers reached a consensus to include it in the joint communique to be issued at the end of their annual meeting today.

"We discussed goods in transit because, for example, if Singapore trades with Thailand, it will have to go through Malaysia, so that has to be covered by some agreement," said another ASEAN official.

But the official said the regional agreement is "for the economic ministers to deal with, (we) are just noting the necessity of this."

The ASEAN source also said the ministers discussed adding in their joint communique mention of the need for cooperation in some translational issues like money laundering, drug trafficking, environment and migration.