Brussels, 06/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, leading the EU trade offensive on the countries of the ASEAN bloc to tap into the region's dynamism, hopes to conclude several bilateral free-trade agreements by 2013, with Singapore as early as this year and Malaysia in 2012.
On the sidelines of the first business summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) - Brunei, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - in Jakarta, he said, on Friday 6 May, that he expected to finalise a free-trade agreement with Singapore this year, followed by a pact with Malaysia in 2012. He said, too, that he wanted to negotiate similar agreements with Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. “We hope to finalise one this year, more next year and the rest in 2013”, he told press. Asked which country would conclude a free-trade agreement this year, he replied that Singapore was the “highest possibility”.
In an interview with the international press, the commissioner spoke about why, in 2009, a freeze was put on the bloc-to-bloc negotiations between the EU and ASEAN, which had been launched by his predecessor Peter Mandelson in 2007. At the time, the talks were confronted with two major stumbling blocks: the heterogeneous nature of the Asian block - excluding Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos from negotiations since, as being among the least advanced economies, they were already part of the EU “Everything But Arms” initiative; and the political situation in Burma/Myanmar, which the EU excluded from negotiations because of its dictatorship in power. Despite elections held last year, the EU has kept most of the economic sanctions against the Burmese military junta in place. Responding to questions from the media which pointed out that Burma/Myanmar was not the only country in the region with a democratic deficit and a deplorable human rights record - Laos and Vietnam are often criticised for human rights abuses, Cambodia and Thailand have become increasingly authoritarian, and the city-state of Singapore is has a one party political system - De Gucht rejected the notion that the EU was making Burma/Myanmar a pariah state, when its neighbours were scarcely any better. He said, however, that any negotiation of a free-trade deal with a third country was preceded by a partnership and cooperation agreement with the EU which included standards of human rights, political progress, and social and labour rights. While the ASEAN bloc is aiming for full regional integration by 2015, De Gucht said that, until then, he would continue to negotiate individual bilateral free-trade agreements, before resuming bloc-to-bloc talks when the time comes. (E.H./transl.rt)