SIEM REAP, Cambodia — Sixteen nations home to roughly half the
world's population have agreed "in principle" to create a free trade
area spanning Asia, the secretary-general of ASEAN said Friday.
Trade ministers from the
10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their counterparts
from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand will press
their leaders to start talks on the trade zone at a regional summit in
November, Surin Pitsuwan told AFP.
The move towards establishing the
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), made during a meeting in
the Cambodian tourist town of Siem Reap on Thursday, was hailed by Surin as
"a big achievement".
The proposal could transform the
region -- containing around 3.5 billion people -- into an integrated market
with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $23 trillion, a third of the
world's current annual GDP, he said.
ASEAN -- which groups Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam -- already has five separate free trade agreements (FTAs)
governing economic cooperation with the six partner countries.
"This idea of trying to
string together all these FTAs in existence into one, in principle now it's
been agreed," Surin said on the final day of a week-long gathering of
ASEAN economic ministers.
The pact will aim to eliminate
trade barriers, create a liberal investment environment and protect
intellectual property rights, according to the negotiation guidelines.
"This is a bold move to
deepen integration in the most dynamic region in the world," New Zealand
Trade Minister Tim Groser said in a statement on his government's website.
"It shows that despite the
economic difficulties in other parts of the world, Asia is actively pursuing
trade liberalisation."
Progress on the proposed RCEP
trade deal, where China will be a dominant power, comes as the United States is
leading a push to create a vast trans-Pacific pact with at least 10 other
economies, including four ASEAN members.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) has emerged as a trade priority for US President Barack Obama, who has
cast the mooted pact as a way to boost US exports and jobs while preserving
labor and environmental standards.
US Trade Representative Ron Kirk,
who attended this week's trade talks in Cambodia, said there was room for both
trade initiatives.
"We seem them as
complementary, not necessarily competition," he told reporters.
AFP
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