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AFTA

ASEAN Integration, mockery of World Food Day, PH farmers say
16-Oct-2014
the peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) picketed the Department of Agriculture opposing the planned participation of the Philippines to next year’s ASEAN integration, calling it “a mockery of World Food Day and gateway to intense land-grabbing, hunger, and poverty.”
Billionaire Salim seeks sweet Philippine deals
26-May-2014 Bloomberg
Billionaire Anthoni Salim’s First Pacific Co. is seeking to buy sugar companies in the Philippines to expand its footprint in Southeast Asia and tap opportunities from a free-trade agreement in the region.
Vietnam’s exports to ASEAN reduce despite free trade agreement
6-May-2014 Thanh Nien News
Vietnam’s exports to its ASEAN partners have fallen despite the free trade agreement inked in 2010.
ASEAN’s newer members and the Asian noodle bowl: coming to grips with multilateralism
17-Nov-2011 EABER
Jayant Menon discusses the trade policy challenges faced by Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam (CLMV)—the newest members of ASEAN. The paper concludes that the multilateralised single-rate system is a better alternative to the multiple-rate system and thus suggests that CLMV countries should follow the original ASEAN members and multilateralize their CEPT tariff preferences. It encourages both old and new members to do the same, especially in the context of proliferating ASEAN+1 FTAs
Asian regionalism and RI’s comparative advantage
24-Aug-2010
Undeniably, we’re heading towards the globalization of world trade. At the same time countries face challenges other than globalization: regionalism and bilateralism. Indonesia simultaneously faces different levels of trade liberalization, whether at the global (World Trade Organization or WTO), regional (ASEAN Free Trade Area or AFTA) or bilateral level (such as with Australia).
RP seeks slower tariff reduction for rice under Afta
14-Sep-2009
The Philippines is now negotiating for a slower reduction in tariffs for rice traded under a free-trade scheme among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Asean To Sign Agreement On Commitment For CEPT-AFTA
4-Dec-2008
A new agreement to further strengthen the Common Effective Preferential Tariff-Asean Free Trade Area Agreement 1992 or CEPT-AFTA, has been drawn up and is expected to be signed at the 14th Asean Summit in Thailand.
Malaysia has met commitments on tariff elimination
4-May-2008
Malaysia has met its commitments on tariff reduction and elimination and opening up the services sector in the Asean region, International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Sunday.
Shoemakers fear FTA
4-Mar-2008
Carcar City’s shoemakers are looking with dread at 2010, the year the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-China Free Trade Area is set to be created.
’Jamu’ makers get ready for AFTA by standardising products
30-Mar-2007
‘Jamu’ or medicinal herb tonic producers in the Southeast Asian (SEA) region are making efforts to standardize their commodities in the face of the advent of the Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA), an Indonesian jamu businessman said.
What’s to become of them?
18-Sep-2006 New Straits Times
Some 11,700 tobacco farmers in Malaysia - most of them in Kelantan - will be affected come 2010 when the original Asean members of Malaysia, Brunei, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore enact zero tariff rates on virtually all imports.
The dynamics of regional trading arrangements
20-Oct-2005 South Centre
There has been a spate of trade agreements signed between countries in recent years - from the same region and even beyond. And this may not necessarily have to do with the fact that it has been a tough going for the multilateral trading system. Regionalism may have its own dynamics.
Preferential trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific region
1-Sep-2005
This IMF working paper of July 2005 describes the proliferation of PTAs in the Asia-Pacific region, discusses their characteristics and implementation, and assesses their potential effects.
FTA to strengthen M’sia-China trade
12-Aug-2005
Malaysia’s ties with the economic powerhouse of China are set to strengthen further with the implementation of the Asean-China Free Trade Area (FTA), Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Friday.
How free is free trade
9-Aug-2005
A huge interest was aroused when Singapore signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States. The impression was that Singapore, though a vital member of Asean, was independent-minded in forging its economic interest beyond the regional grouping.
’Indonesia set for a fall in free trade era’
25-Jul-2005 Jakarta Post
Indonesia will not be able to take advantage of increasing world trade liberalization because many stakeholders here are not even aware it is going on, an official says.
The rise and rise of Asian trade
4-Jun-2005 Business Times
A mammoth regional grouping involving Asean and other countries and groups is in the works.
Asia embraces free-trade links
13-Mar-2005 IHT
Malaysia is joining a long and growing list of Pacific nations rushing to sign free-trade agreements with their biggest trading partners.
Stop the mad pursuit of bilateral free trade and economic partnership agreements!
26-Jan-2005 IMC QC
We - farmers, fisherfolks, rural women, workers from the formal and informal sectors, and NGOs belonging to the Stop the New Round! Coalition - express our strong opposition to the Philippines government’s mad pursuit of bilateral free trade agreements particularly with Japan, China and the USA.
Korean carmakers prepare plans for AFTA
17-Jan-2005
South Korean carmakers Hyundai and KIA are considering setting up a production base in Southeast Asia to take advantage of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).