[asia-apec 1609] Australia and NZ set to enter Afta - The Star, Malaysia

[APEC Monitoring Group]

The Star online 
thestar.com.my


Friday, October 6, 2000
Australia and NZ set to enter Afta 

CHIANGMAI: Senior officials yesterday recommended Asean allow Australia and New Zealand to join its free trade zone in a move they reportedly estimate will raise combined GDP by US$27bil. 
Finance officials from the 10 Asean member nations presented their economic ministers with a report recommending the Antipodean neighbours, which have their own trade alliance called Closer Economic Relations (CER), join the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta), a senior Asean representative told AFP. 

"We recommended that the Afta-Cer free trade agreement is feasible and advisable,'' said Cesar Virata, who chaired a group of senior officials and private sector representatives who studied the issue. 

Virata was speaking at a meeting of Asean economic ministers at the northern Thai resort of Chiang Mai. 

Efforts to forge ties with Australia and New Zealand "are certainly steps in the right direction,'' added Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. 

The report recommends Asean begins talks with Canberra and Wellington on Afta within one year. "Discussions could begin as early as the end of 2000,'' said Karun Kittisaporn, director general of Thailand's Foreign Trade Department. 

The odds of the two countries joining Afta are now relatively high, another official told AFP. 

"The opening up of markets for products is always the desired outcome,'' said Philippines trade minister Manuel Roxas. 

But Roxas also warned Asean needs to consider whether integrating Australia and New Zealand could hurt South-East Asian industries. 

"We must consider the pace at which we open up our markets, so that it is consistent with our needs,'' he told AFP. 

The detailed report on Afta-CER now will be presented to the Asean economic ministers. They are expected to make a decision on it by the end of the conference on Saturday. 

If the economic ministers approve Canberra and Wellington's entry and set a timetable, they will then turn the process back over to officials to hammer out the details, said Roxas. 

Australia has been lobbying to join the Asean zone for several years. 

Economic and trade ministers from Canberra and Wellington will discuss the Afta-CER merger when they arrive in Chiang Mai on Friday, officials in Canberra had previously said. 

"In the longer term, what we are proposing to do will benefit all regional economies and I think it's very, very important that we continue to draw the regional economies closer given what's happening internationally on a global scale in terms of trade,'' Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile had said.--AFX