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Published on April 15, 2008

Asean, Australia and New Zealand are expected to conclude a trade, services and investment pact at a meeting of senior officials in Brisbane later this month, senior Commerce Ministry officials said last week.

The 14th round of Asean-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement talks will be held from April 19-26.

If the pact cannot then be finalised, it will be turned over to a ministerial meeting in Bali, Indonesia, next month to ensure it is signed by November and implemented early next year.

The Asean Economic Ministers Summit scheduled to be held in Bangkok this November will wrap up other trade deals under the Asean cooperation framework.

Asean members have concluded free-trade pacts with China, Japan and South Korea. The grouping is waiting to sign a similar agreement with India.

Last Thursday, a senior European Union trade official was in Jakarta to try to speed up negotiations for a free-trade agreement between the EU and Asean, a process he said had been "moving relatively slowly".

Karl Falkenberg, the European Commission's deputy director-general for trade, said negotiations had made little progress since talks began last May.

"It is important for us to know where the individual Asean members are at. We have set the rather ambitious target of completing negotiations in about a year or a year and a half - let's say by the end of 2009, we should be able to achieve some kind of outcome," he said.

Winichai Chaemchaeng, deputy director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department, said last week that the Asean pact with Australia and New Zealand should be concluded in the coming round of talks if all sides can agree on a sensitive list of traded goods.

"If the pact could be concluded, Thailand should enjoy great benefit on rules of origin, in particular on garment trading as we would be able to export products to Australia and New Zealand that originate in other Asean countries."

So far, most countries can agree on the major issues of negotiation, such as rules of origin and investment.

Only a few issues remain, such as Indonesia and Vietnam wanting to protect their dairy sectors.

Under the trade in goods sector, Asean, Australia and New Zealand are committed to liberalise 96 per cent of all products traded between them.

However, most countries in Asean still do not want to automatically adopt the most-favoured-nation ranking for Australia and New Zealand in the service sector.

Petchanet Pratrunagkrai

The Nation, The Jakarta Post

Asia News Network