SOUTH-EAST Asian leaders have delayed launching their long-awaited ASEAN
Economic Community by nearly a year.
The AEC will be inaugurated on
December 1 2015, according to a new schedule decided by the leaders last night,
rather than January 1.
ASEAN's goal for the past 20
years has been to create a unified market in the region, which now covers 600
million people with a combined GDP of $2 trillion.
However, the 10 member countries
have so far only met 72 per cent of the economic blueprint for merging their
economies into a single trade and investment bloc, with Singapore and Malaysia
doing best.
Indonesia's Trade Minister Gita
Wirjawan indicated his country, Thailand and the Philippines were struggling
with cross-border trade issues.
"We will not force things;
we will instead merely consolidate our achievements looking toward the end of
2015," he said.
An ASEAN official said although
members had dismantled most tariff barriers, they had much work still to do on
eliminating non-tariff barriers and opening services and investment.
The ASEAN leaders and their
counterparts from Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea
are expected to commit to an even more ambitious free trade bloc, the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Julia Gillard was expected to
arrive here about 6.30pm AEST in preparation for tomorrow's East Asia Summit.
The 16 leaders will agree
tomorrow to start formal negotiations for the world's broadest trade pact,
covering 16 countries, 3 billion people and $16.7 trillion combined GDP.
The US and Russia, the newest EAS
members, are not engaged in the RCEP.
There are unofficial hopes the
negotiation could also be finished by the end of 2015.
However Mr Gita acknowledged that
given the work still ahead on AEC that would be "amazing".
PETER ALFORD
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