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Published on April 19, 2008

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation

The EU could start meeting with individual Asean countries instead.

The change came after little progress was made in talks during a four-day joint committee meeting which ended yesterday in Bangkok. The EU was prompted to abruptly cancel a press conference by the European Commission director-general for trade Philippe Meyer, which was earlier planned for yesterday.

A source who asked not to be named, who participated in the 4th Joint Committee for the Asean-EU FTA, told The Nation that there had been a lack of political will from Asean countries and their negotiators had a conservative position on moving ahead with the talks.

"The meeting has moved in the right direction but shown very slow progress on some issues. I'm a bit worried at the pace and this will prompt new ways of negotiation.

Future negotiations could focus on a small group of Asean countries so that we achieve progress," the source said.

The EU-Asian FTA was initiated in 2006 and a feasibility study completed last April showed benefits to both sides. Negotiations began early this year, based on reaching a comprehensive agreement covering trade in goods, services and investment. It could become one of the largest regional pacts, and was expected to be complete within two years of negotiation.

The EU has already wrapped up free-trade talks with South America's Mercosur group and is preparing to open talks with the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Asian countries seem reluctant to cover some issues, such as intellectual property and services. The Asian countries need more political involvement and would maybe proceed through a new form of negotiation to move the deal forward, the source said.

At the fourth meeting, Singapore had the clearest position on trade liberalisation, while Thailand was indecisive. On the table were discussions on goods, non-tariff measures, psytosanitary and sanitary matters, customs and trade facilities, rules of origin, services and investment, intellectual property rights, technical barriers to trade, dispute settlement and sustainable development.

The fifth meeting is due to take place in Manila in June.