The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and six of its
dialogue partners are expected to start negotiations early next year on a
proposed economic partnership which will form the world's largest economic
bloc.
Negotiations on the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partner-ship (RCEP), an initiative involving the 10
Asean members and its partners - Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand
and South Korea - are expected to start in February.
Asean officials met here on the
sidelines of the senior officials meeting yesterday expected the leaders to
make the announcement when they meet at the Asean Summit which begins here
tomorrow.
The RCEP, endorsed at the 19th
Asean Summit in Bali last year, is aimed at consolidating Free Trade Agreements
signed between Asean and its dialogue partners to ease trade procedures and
boost the flow of trade and investment within the Asia-Pacific region.
Officials said the idea was to
create a single FTA between Asean and its dialogue partners.
The potential is huge as it
involves a single market with more three billion people and a combined GDP of
about US$17 trillion.
Here, the leaders will also look
at the deadline for the formation of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) by 2015
when member countries must remove all trade barriers.
While Asean is eager to move on
to other issues to meet its AEC deadline and the adoption of the Asean Human
Rights declaration, the nagging South China Sea dispute is also set to hog the
limelight.
Asean officials are anxious to
see how Cambodia, as the summit host and Asean chair, will handle the issue
after the fiasco at the Asean Foreign Ministers meeting in July.
The ministers failed to issue a
joint statement for the first time in 45 years after the territorial claims
between China and Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam spilled into
the meeting as they could not agree on the text referring to the dispute in the
statement. The other non-Asean claimant country is Taiwan.
Cambodia was heavily criticised
by several member countries as Phnom Penh was accused of pandering to China
during the July meeting.
“As the Asean chair, Cambodia
needs to play a more assertive role in ensuring cohesiveness and solidarity
within Asean. This is a crucial time to show unity,” said one official.
A draft Code of Conduct (CoC) on
the South China Sea has been circulated to Asean foreign ministers that
comprises elements of conflict prevention and management for the maritime
territorial dispute.
However, the grouping has yet to
get China to sit down and negotiate on the legally binding CoC which is
intended as a mechanism to implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties
in the South China Sea that Beijing signed and Asean member nations agreed to
in 2002.
Asean leaders are also expected
to adopt the Asean Human Rights Declaration here despite criticisms that it
falls short of international standards.
Asean officials said critics must
see the overall context of the declaration which took into account of cultural
and religious sensitivities.
“We work on consensus and need to
recognise some Asean countries have different perspectives on certain aspects
of human rights.
“For example, certain member
countries may be okay with gays and lesbians but for others it is a factor of
religion and cultural sensivity,” said another official.
The United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has called on Asean leaders to
suspend the adoption of the first-ever Human Rights Declaration, saying it
lacked transparency during the drafting process.
Mergawati Zulkafar
Business & Investment Opportunities
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