ASEAN
The European Union is Malaysia’s third-largest trading partner and is its largest source of foreign direct investment, and Malaysia is a major exporter of raw materials to the European Union. But politics over palm oil threaten their relationship.
On trade in goods under the FTA, the Philippines will progressively eliminate and reduce customs duties on goods originating from Hong Kong. On trade in services, Hong Kong service providers will enjoy better business opportunities.
The British government remains hopeful of setting up a joint committee to boost bilateral trade and investment with Malaysia amid changes to the federal government.
Japan will make a fresh attempt to expand the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact to include more Asian economies, such as Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines, after the new coronavirus exposed the risks of supply chains overly dependent on China.
India is in talks with 23 parties, including the European Union, the Gulf Cooperation Council, ASEAN and Israel, on various types of trade agreements, according to data from the central ministry of commerce and industry.
Despite India’s decision to withdraw from the final stages of negotiations to form the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the remaining parties hope to get the free trade agreement (FTA) signed off by the end of the year.
Asean nations have agreed to try and persuade India to return to the negotiating table for the 16 nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade deal.
The RCEP deal is expected to be signed at the end of this year, ASEAN Secretary-General Dato Lim Jock Hoi said on the sideline of the 26th Meeting of ASEAN Economic Ministers Retreat.
As ministers of the member countries of the RCEP meet for final negotiations over the trade agreement this week, regional lawmakers today expressed concern about the lack of parliamentary and public oversight of the deal, as well as its potential human rights impacts.
Lack of harmonised standards, and certification issues that increase transaction costs plague India’s FTAs
With new regulatory changes now taking place on the basis of the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II of 2018, Indonesia and Malaysia are trying to come to terms with the implications for their global palm oil market strategy and domestic production.
The EU has expressed interest in pursuing a number of free trade agreements (FTAs) in the region, not only with Thailand but eventually with Asean as a whole, says EU-Asean Business Council Chairman Donald Kanak.
Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Trần Quốc Khánh talks to Vietnam News Agency about what went on at the recent meeting on Asean economic integration in Hanoi.
In late December 2019, Singapore and New Zealand ratified the upgraded Closer Economic Partnership (ANZSCEP) agreement. The agreement came into force on January 1, 2020.
India was absent from two days of talks on a sprawling Asia-Pacific free trade agreement in Indonesia that ended Tuesday, fueling speculation that it may withdraw from the negotiations.
The ASEAN Secretariat has invited India to participate in a meeting called in Bali on February 3 and 4 on RCEP agreement to sort out concerns of New Delhi.
Given the current ease and widespread access to information as well as the social media-facilitated civil mobilizations across the globe, political elites of the RCEP countries should be consistently mindful of such risk from the grassroot level.
India’s decision in the final months of last year to withdraw from negotiations for the mega-regional trade agreement known as the RCEP disappointed the countries of Southeast Asia, which are also members of the ASEAN.
The Republic of Korea (RoK) will spare no efforts to help conclude the RCEP by the end of this year by forging deeper ties with the ASEAN, as the country strives to revitalise its ailing exports
South Korea has secured 16 free trade partners — 12 countries and four trade blocs — around the globe since it started pursuing bilateral free trade agreements two decades ago.
