Brussels, 31/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - Ministers for the Economy from Asia and the EU held a meeting last week in Dalian, China, as part of their annual ASEM (Asia/Europe partnership) meetings. They also adopted a declaration highlighting the benefits that Asia could reap from the next round of European Union enlargement of ten new countries. The document stressed that, "the European Union is committed to remaining an open partner, with a single market extended to 450 million people under the same customs and trade rules as from the day of their accession". The declaration also stated that, "Asian exporters complying with current European standards will thus benefit from immediate access to an even larger market".