U.S. seeks to break free trade impasse with Southeast Asia
U.S. seeks to break free trade impasse with Southeast Asia
P. Parameswaran, Agence France-Presse/Washington
Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Robert Zoellick is determined to break a free trade impasse with Southeast Asia during a visit to the region this week but has cautioned that any agreement reached will have to be comprehensive.
Two years after President George W. Bush announced an initiative to forge free trade pacts with the export-driven, economically-booming Southeast Asian nations, Washington managed to strike only one deal so far -- with Singapore.
But the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement cannot be a benchmark for Southeast Asia as the island city state is already largely tariff free.
So, many economies in the region have been following closely the protracted U.S.-Thailand free trade negotiations, which seem to have been bogged down over U.S. demands for stringent intellectual property rights protection and Thai requests for access to low-cost pharmaceuticals.
Zoellick told reporters at the weekend that he would try to break the free trade deadlock when he meets with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Bangkok, the first stop of his regional swing covering also Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines.
"One of the purposes of my visit, since in the case of the negotiations with Thailand the Thai prime minister plays a very key, leading role, will be to talk to him on some of the key elements to move this forward," said Zoellick, who was U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) before his new assignment.
He said that there had been discussions in Malaysia about a possible free trade agreement with the United States and "so I'll be getting a little sense of that" during talks with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
In Singapore, Zoellick would visit a pharmaceutical facility "because Singapore is a very good example for us to emphasize to the rest of the world their strategy with the FTA is to strengthen intellectual property rules to help draw investment and industry in bio-tech and pharmaceuticals.
"They have been quite successful," he said.
Southeast Asia is key to the United States as it hosts approximately US$88 billion in U.S. direct investment and is the third largest overseas market for U.S. exports. The U.S. trade with the region totals $127 billion.
Zoellick was quick to point out that any perceived delay by the United States in striking free trade deals with Southeast Asian nations was due to the comprehensive nature of the negotiations.
Citing competitor China's swift free trade deals with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Zoellick said "I think the Chinese have been very shrewd in how they handled this.
"Here I don't want to get too technical but there are lots of different types of free trade agreements. People use the term loosely," he said, acclaiming U.S. free trade agreements as "the top of the class product."
He said the US pacts tried to cover agricultural products, services, intellectual property, government procurement, environment and labor, as opposed to the China-ASEAN deal which largely centered on manufactured goods.
China and ASEAN last year signed a deal to liberalize trade barriers and pave the way for a more comprehensive accord planned for 2010 that could see the creation of the world's largest free trade zone covering nearly two billion people.
It will enhance China's role as a major growth engine for ASEAN's export-led economies because of its growing appetite for raw materials, finished goods and components.
Annual two-way trade is expected to rise 28 percent to $100 billion this year from $78.2 million in 2003.