MANILA, Philippines — ASEAN is moving towards creating a template
that would institutionalize regulatory reforms that would guide the region in
its trade negotiations with other regional trade partners as the ten-member
states fully integrate their economies by 2015.
Trade and Industry Undersecretary
Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. said there have been initial discussions on this in
ASEAN. As such, the Philippine government’s inter-agency committee on tariff
and related matters was convened recently to start some discussions as this
would impact on the country’s trade and investments.
This template would serve as
ASEAN’s guiding principles when they negotiate for other regional trade deals
or the so-called ASEAN + 3.
So far, ASEAN has entered into
regional FTA deals including China, EU, Japan, US, Australia-New Zealand,
India, among others. On top of that, individual ASEAN members also conduct
their own bilateral FTAs with other trading partners. These FTAs are no longer
governed by ASEAN rules.
“How to grow our exports and
continue getting fresh investments would guide us in negotiating for a possible
ASEAN + 3 trade agreement,” said Cristobal.
Cristobal, however, said this
guiding principle will not supplant existing ASEAN agreements but rather
broaden the economic reach of ASEAN as it seeks to expand trade and investments
through regional FTAs.
In July this year, the
Philippines hosted the first ASEAN
Regulatory Reform Symposium for ASEAN (ARRS) integration in preparation
for the ASEAN full economic integration or the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)
by 2015.
“The Philippine hosting of the
ARRS will advance efforts to institutionalize regulatory reform dialogues
within the ASEAN. The symposium will
help identify key challenges in policy formulation and address the gaps to
achieve a more comprehensive regulatory reform program for specific sectors and
industries,” Cristobal said.
The AEC envisions a single market
and production base, a competitive economic region, equitable economic
development, and integration into the global economy by 2015.
Through trade and investment
liberalization, the ASEAN has reduced the cost of doing business through tariff
reduction. At the start of the ASEAN Free Trade Area in 1993, the average
tariff on intra-ASEAN trade was almost 13 per cent, and last year, in 2011, it
has gone down to less that one percent.
Outside of the region, ASEAN has
become a major player in the global market. According to the World Trade
Organization, ASEAN accounted for 7 per
cent of global exports (totalling US$ 14,851 billion) in 2010.
According to the ASEAN
Competitiveness Report 2010 prepared by the Asia Competitiveness Institute of
the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore,
ASEAN was found to be more competitive than 57 percent of the 132 developed and
developing economies in 2010.
However, the same Report also
indicated that ASEAN has not advanced on the competitiveness scale in the past
five years. This Symposium is a good opportunity for ASEAN to highlight current
efforts in instituting several reform measures; as well as in providing support
to advancing parallel advocacy efforts by the private sector to implement broad
regulatory reform programs as part of the region’s overall competitiveness strategy.
Aside from reforms of regulatory
regimes in supply chain and logistics, ASEAN needs to build on its previous
successes and initiate a fresh wave of market-based reforms, in order to meet
the challenges of globalization, as well as risks posed by a volatile global
economy.
BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT
Business & Investment Opportunities
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