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Asean preparing for FTA discussion
A working group to study new issues related to intellectual property, labour, environment, and e-commerce is being set up by Asean, as the bloc is revving up new free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with non-Asean partners.
Commerce permanent secretary Boonyarit Kalayanamit said the 35th meeting of High-Level Task Force on Asean Economic Integration, hosted by Thailand on March 12-13 in Bangkok, agreed to set up the working group to study possible benefits and negative impacts of such issues in the FTAs.
“Asean needs to prepare for new FTA talks with dialogue partners in the future,” he said. “Many countries are interested in trade talks with Asean, such as the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union [EAEU],” said Mr Boonyarit.
The EAEU consists of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.
“Asean is an attractive region in FTA talks because of high economic growth,” he said.
Asean has agreed FTA talks should start immediately following the conclusion of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) discussions, which is expected to be concluded within this year, said Mr Boonyarit.
In addition, Asean decided to rely on the World Trade Organization to settle multilateral trade disputes. The bloc also agreed to improve Asean trade rules management and reduce non-tariff barriers among members.
Mr Boonyarit said Thailand, which chairs Asean this year, will focus on three major areas covering 13 key economic issues.
The three areas are future orientation, enhanced connectivity and sustainability.
The future orientation plan covers the preparation plans for Asean to become an Industry 4.0 economy. The enhanced connectivity goal aims to promote linkage of the region.
On the sustainability front, Thailand aims to provide guidelines for promoting sustainable fishery cooperation and capital market development as well as establish a biofuel and energy R&D network centre in Asean.
Thai-Asean trade rose 13% last year to UScopy14 billion, with exports amounting to $68.4 billion and imports worth $45.5 billion. Thailand enjoyed a trade surplus worth $22.9 billion with Asean.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1644776/asean-preparing-for-fta-discussion