Brussels, 03/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - After Singapore and Malaysia, the EU is expected to negotiate a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with a third partner in South East Asia, Vietnam. The ASEAN region, however, hopes to resume bloc-to-bloc talks with the EU, after such talks were frozen in 2009.
The meeting of economy ministers from the ten ASEAN countries (Brunei, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) on 31 March, in Phnom Pen, provided ASEAN with an opportunity to tell Commissioner Karel De Gucht, who took part in the work, of its wish to resume talks for a bloc-to-bloc free trade agreement with the EU, after it had been agreed to halt such talks in 2009.
Launched in 2007 by Karel De Gucht's predecessor, Peter Mandelson, talks had at the time to overcome two major stumbling blocks. On one hand, there was the diverse nature of the Asian bloc, which had imposed a de facto exclusion from the bloc-to-bloc talks on Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos which already benefitted, as least advanced countries, from the European “Everything But Arms” initiative as part of the EU's Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). On the other hand, there was the political situation in Burma/Myanmar, which meant that the EU had excluded that country from talks because of its dictatorial regime. On Sunday, ASEAN ministers called for region to region talks with the EU to be resumed, in parallel to talks conducted by the EU27 for individual free trade agreements, currently with Singapore and Malaysia and in the future with Vietnam, and also possibly with Indonesia and Thailand. The argument for this was partly upheld by the fact that there have been positive changes in the situation in Burma/Myanmar which, after substantial reforms over the past year, may see EU sanctions against it eased in April, as a reward for the correct way in which legislative elections in that country unfolded on 1 April (see related article). The lifting of political sanctions would pave the way for the lifting of economic sanctions - the restoration of trade preferences in the context of the Everything But Arms initiative - which, being more complex, is linked to the reading of a current ILO report on forced labour in Burma.
Although Commissioner De Gucht gives his assurance that the European Commission aims, in time, to have a bloc-to-bloc agreement with the ASEAN region, and that ongoing talks with a number of countries will facilitate this, he underlined the EU's expectations regarding the trading opportunities in that region. Such an agreement should cover goods and services, and include non-tariff barriers, investment, public procurement and intellectual property.
Trade between the EU and ASEAN reached a value of €206 billion in 2010, making the region the fifth largest trading partner of the EU27. Making up 10.7% of ASEAN's trade, the EU is itself the third largest partner of the Asian bloc, after China and Japan. On the other hand, the EU is by far the largest investor in the region accounting for 20.6% of foreign direct investment between 2008 and 2010. (EH/transl.jl)