ASEAN Free Trade Area Is on TrackSecretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Rodolfo C. Severino, Jr. told the US and Japanese businessmen Thursday that the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) is on track.At present, 90 percent of the products included in AFTA has tariff levels of 0-5 percent. By the beginning of 2002, ASEAN expects to complete the free trade area among the older ASEAN members, namely Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The four newer members, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, have different timetable for tariff-cutting completion, he said. Speaking at separate consultations between ASEAN economic ministers and American and Japanese businessmen in Hanoi, Severino said under the free trade area, product standards are being harmonized and promoted through ASEAN mutual recognition arrangements and ASEAN has identified 20 priority product groups for standards harmonization. To promote industrial complementation, ASEAN has approved 77 projects under the ASEAN Industrial Scheme with annual trade transaction worth almost one billion U.S. dollars, a release said. To support investments and create investment opportunities, master plans are being worked out for infrastructure building, such as the ASEAN Highway Infrastructure Development Plan and the Singapore-to-Kunming Rail Link. To facilitate transport and logistics movement in the region, ASEAN is implementing a framework agreement on the facilitation of goods in transit. Besides, negotiations are on-going to liberalize and facilitate services in the region in areas of air transport, business services, construction, financial services, maritime transport, telecommunications and tourism. To ensure the smooth flow of goods across borders, customs procedures are being harmonized, an ASEAN system of common tariff nomenclature has also been endorsed for implementation, and the WTO Valuation Agreement will also be carried out. Severino called on the American and Japanese businessmen to " take advantage of the highly diverse economic structure and resources of ASEAN economies as a single production base and market." The United States and Japan are ASEAN's two most important sources of foreign direct investment. Between 1995-2000, they accounted for 15 percent and 16 percent respectively of 120 billion U.S. dollars worth of investment in the region. In January 1992 heads of government signed in Singapore an agreement to create an ASEAN Free Trade Area by 2008. |
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