Burma political issue holding up EU-Asean free-trade talks
The political situation in Burma is the key obstacle in the European Union's desire to start negotiations for a free-trade deal with Asean, according to an EU trade envoy in Bangkok.
Trade counsellor Jean-Jacques Bouflet said in a telephone interview that EU members were now focusing on pushing for political reform in Burma. "We feel it is the main issue that we have to consider as we decide whether to proceed on free-trade association negotiations with Asean," he said. The Burmese issue has often emerged as a thorny one during meetings between Asean and EU ministers. While EU ministers tend to favour adopting strong measures to force the junta to move towards political reform and the release of pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, Asean members tend to prefer a more lenient approach with their neighbour. Bouflet added that the wide difference in economic performance among Asean countries was another difficulty for the prospective FTA talks. Asean and EU ministers have long floated the idea of creating a trade deal between the two regions. A study by a "vision group" set up by the two sides found that such an agreement would be beneficial to both sides, stimulating the economy of Asean members by another 2 percentage points of gross domestic product by 2020. The vision group suggested that the agreement should be a comprehensive package covering trade, services and investment. But Malaysia, Laos and Burma have already said that they cannot accept the inclusion of government procurements in the scope of the framework for negotiations on any Asean-EU free-trade pact. The EU has already wrapped up free-trade talks with South America's Mercosur group - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. The union is preparing to open talks with the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC). The Gulf country members are the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The European Commissioners will soon send a recommendation to the members' states for seeking ideas on the prospective FTA. Members should conclude their viewpoint whether to hold the talk before the beginning of next year, he said. Chutima Bunyapraphasara at the EU section of the International Trade Strategy Agency said it was likely that the EU and Asean would agree to open free-trade talks. She noted that Asean economic ministers were scheduled to discuss the issue at a meeting next month in Kuala Lumpur.
Petchanet Pratruangkrai The Nation
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