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AUSTRALIA called on member countries of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to fast-track the
signing of the free-trade agreement between the regional
bloc and Australia and New Zealand, with the view to
reacing an enlarged market with a target combined gross
domestic product (GDP) of US$ 1 trillion by 2020.
Australian Trade Minister Warren Truss said bilateral
and regional agreements also seek to develop solutions
to the problems that beset the Doha negotiations in the
World Trade Organization (WTO).
“If we
can develop a text acceptable to the region and a wide
group of countries that can be very helpful in providing
support to the discussions in the Doha negotiations . .
. . we should see these bilateral and regional
agreements as complementary rather than competitor,”
said Truss in a briefing at the Asean forum here.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard and New Zealand
Prime Minister Helen Clark are expected to take up the
proposed Asean-Australia and New Zealand Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) in their respective bilateral meetings
with Asean leaders on Monday.
Besides
an FTA with the Asean countries, Australia—which will
host the annual Asia Pacific Economic Forum (Apec) this
year—is also keen on pushing a free trade agreement
among the 21-member economies of Apec.
“Australia’s major priority in this region is
Australia-New Zealand free trade agreement with the
Asean under which discussions are proceeding well at the
present time . . . .that is a priority for us and we
think that it will provide potential to enhance and
improve trading between our countries,” said
Truss.
He
added: “But we are also interested in the other options
that are being put forward, the Apec proposals that
copotentially lead to Apec-wide free trade agreement and
that will also lead to broader and flexible trading
arrangements between our countries.”
The
negotiations for the FTA between Asean-Australia and New
Zealand formally started in 2005 and leaders expect that
a trade pact that seeks increased productivity and
investments and reduction of tariffs will be signed
within the year.
The
two-way trade in goods and services between Asean and
Australia reached $55 billion in 2005. Asean is
considered to be the third largest market next to China
and India with a population of 550 million people. The
region has a combined GDP of $800 billion next only to
China.
The
proposed Asean free trade agreement with Australia and
New Zealand also aims to eliminate tariff and nontariff
barriers, specifically the sanitary and phytosanitary
requirements being imposed by the two commonwealth
countries on agricultural products from Asean economies,
like tropical fruits from the Philippines.
The FTA
seeks to address issues on nontariff measures that
inhibit trade in the region, among them measures on
antidumping, standards and conformance, price
undertakings, import licensing, labeling, import quota
and SPS.
A study
by the Centre for International Economics (CER) showed
that the proposed FTA between Asean and
Australia
and New Zealand would bring about a net discounted
benefit of US$ 48 billion in additional GDP to the
region by 2020, with half of the amount to be reaped by
the Asean countries.
In
previous negotiations, the Asean and Australia-New
Zealand set up guidelines for the FTA that include
elimination of tariffs for manufactured goods by 2010
for Asean-6 and by 2015 for the four Asean new members,
with some flexibility. For their part,
Australia
and New Zealand will progressively reduce tariffs for
Asean from the date of conclusion of negotiations.
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