[asia-apec 1606] Singapore Straits Times on ASEAN-CER deal 7/10/00

[APEC Monitoring Group]

Closer ties with Australia, NZ; FTA left hanging


By DOUGLAS WONG IN CHIANG MAI


ASEAN will work towards developing a Closer Economic Partnership (CEP) with
Australia and New Zealand, but proposals for that link to be a huge
free-trade area (FTA) were left hanging here yesterday.

""We intend to step up our efforts to enhance the Afta (Asean Free Trade
Area), Closer Economic Relations (Australia and New Zealand's FTA) tie...
but it's not an easy thing to merge the two regions together, there needs to
be preparation,'' Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Supachai
Panitchpakdi said.

Top economics officials from the countries concerned will study the report
of a high-level task force which proposed the huge FTA, but will focus on
development assistance and other measures.

Australia, which has seen a number of attempts to get closer to Asean
rebuffed through the years, said that the agreement was a significant step
forward.

""We're looking to the future and the greater integration of our regional
economies, this is an evolutionary process,'' said Australian Trade Minister
Mark Vaile.

An FTA from Auckland to Yangon would boost economic output in the region by
US$48 billion (S$84 billion) in the next two decades, and strengthen the
political bargaining power of countries involved, the task-force report
said.

Singapore, which has already agreed on a CEP with New Zealand involving an
FTA, said terminology should not be a stumbling block. ""FTA has an
old-economy, old-world connotation... If we can get together with Australia
and New Zealand, it would be all to the good, and that partnership should
include more elements like our e-Asean initiative, for example,''
Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo said.

Indonesia's Trade and Industry Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said: ""We're not
ready to set up an Afta-CER area, so the CEP is the best way for a while,
but we're not closing the door.''

Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Minister, Datuk Seri Rafidah
Aziz, said Malaysia does not envisage the CEP involving an FTA.

Without a timetable for negotiations, the proposed FTA is effectively on
hold until next year's economic ministers' meeting.