EU puts Myanmar aside, proceeds FTA talks with Asean
Bernama, Malaysia
EU Puts Myanmar Aside, Proceeds FTA Talks With Asean
From Umi Hani Sharani
4 May 2007
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, May 4 (Bernama) — The European Union (EU) today agreed to enter into free trade area (FTA) talks with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) despite its strong feeling on the absence of Myanmar’s democratic reforms.
Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, told Bernama the 27-country EU’s stance on the junta-led Myanmar’s rights record has not changed although both blocs agreed that an FTA would provide for a comprehensive trade and investment liberalisation.
"Our stance on Myanmar, as you know, has not changed," he said after the media conference at the 13th Asean Economic Ministers (AEM) retreat here today.
Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Mandelson said the negotiations would boost relations between EU and Asean, and had huge potential to not just deepen economic ties for both sides, but also to grow international trade as a whole and boost global economy.
"I think this is an important further step in relations between EU and Asean and I am glad we’re kicking this off today in Brunei," he said.
Meanwhile, the retreat’s chairman, Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz, said the negotiation process would be based on a region-to-region approach, taking into account the different levels of development and capacity of individual Asean members.
Rafidah, who is also Malaysia’s Minister of International Trade and Industry, said a senior official’s joint-committee would be set up by both blocs to look into the details of the negotiations, including a possible timeline for the FTA.
It was reported that an agreement between both parties would increase EU’s exports to Asean by 24.2 percent while Asean would see an increase of its exports to EU of 18.5 percent.
Asked why the negotiations took such a long time to come into effect, Rafidah said: "Well, why not? The Japanese one (FTA negotiation) is taking ages if that is anything to go by."
Meanwhile, Asean secretary-general, Ong Keng Yong, said the potential FTA would increase investment flow by between 10 and 18 percent for both parties.
But, he said, the discussions would take some time as EU was a well-developed and economically integrated region.
"There are many rules and regulations that they have already quantified, and in the case of Asean, we are only just beginning to have our own economic integration," he said.
Trade between Asean and EU increased by seven percent to US$137 billion (US$1=RM3.42) in 2005 from US$128 billion in 2004.
EU, as a group, is the largest foreign investor in Asean, with investments totalling US$7.1 billion in 2005, or 19 percent of total foreign direct investment into Asean.
Asean and EU have also progressed their relationships previously with the Technical Cooperation Initiatives, which include undertaking several activities like the Trans-Regional EU-Asean Initiative; Asean-EU Programme for Regional Integration Support; Asean-EU Regional Cooperation Programme on Standards, Quality and Conformance Assessment; Asean-European Commission Energy Cooperation Programme/EC-Asean Energy Facility; and, Asean-EC Intellectual Property Rights Cooperation Programme.
