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.