ASEAN economic ministers rush signing of 6 accords
Manila Bulletin | 10 December 2006
ASEAN economic ministers rush signing of 6 accords
By BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT
CEBU — Economic Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) rushed on Friday night the signing of six agreements leaving behind a single document, the agreement on trade and services with China, unsigned as they headed back to their respective countries ahead of typhoon "Seniang," which is expected to make landfall here today, Sunday.
Ramon Vicente Kabigting, director of the Bureau of International Trade Regulation (BITR) of the Department of Trade and Industry, told reporters that only two economic ministers from Indonesia and Singapore failed to come but they were represented by their senior officials at Friday’s informal AEM meeting.
Kabigting said that ASEAN Ministers present at the meeting moved to go ahead with the signing stressing they want to accomplish something for the trip before heading back home.
Of the six agreements signed, four documents were intra-ASEAN and two were ASEAN-China. The six agreements signed were the following:
ASEAN Framework (Amendment) Agreement for the Integration of Priority Sectors; ASEAN Sectoral Integration (Amendment) Protocol for the Integration of Priority Sectors; Protocol to Implement the 5th Package of Commitments under the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS); ASEAN Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on Nursing Services; Second Protocol to Amend the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and the People’s Republic of China; and, the Protocol to Amend the Trade in Goods of the Framework on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and the People’s Republic of China.
Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xi Lai moved for postponement to January next year the signing of the ASEAN-China agreement on Trade in Services, which is a major component of the comprehensive framework between ASEAN and China outlining the progressive liberalization for the services sector.
Had it not for the typhoon that led to the postponement of the ASEAN Leaders’ Summit, scheduled on Dec. 11 to 13, to mid-January next year, the economic ministers are supposed to sign today (Dec. 10) yet the intraASEAN documents and the three ASEAN-China agreements on the 12th.
Kabigting explained that the first two intraASEAN agreements reflect the amendments necessary to implement Phase 2 of the Priority Integration Sectors (PIS) including improvement of the existing measures, revised timelines for implementation and additional responsible bodies.
The ministers also agreed to add logistics sector as the 12th PIS to the 11 original PIS that include agro-based products, air travel, automotive products, information and communications technology, electronics, fisheries, healthcare, rubber-based products, textiles and apparel, tourism and woodbased products.
The original six ASEAN countries agreed to fully bring down to zero the tariffs and eliminate non- tariff barriers on the 12 sectors by 2007 instead while the four new members (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam) by 2012 as they are given five years to fully integrate these sectors. Under the Common Effective Preferential Tariff Scheme, the regular tariff reduction program of AFTA, the original six member countries should attain full economic integration by 2010 while the four others by 2015.
According to Kabigting, the PIS, excluding logistics, account for at least 54 percent of the total intraASEAN trade.
The third agreement relates to the consolidation of commitments made in previous packages under the AFAS and under the General Agreement on Trade in Services in one document.
The ASEAN MRA on Nursing Services is a Philippine initiative and is in support of the Bali Concord II for the completion of MRAs for qualifications in major professional services.
The said MRA would facilitate mobility of nursing professionals within ASEAN, exchange information and expertise on standards and qualifications, promote adoption of best practices and provide opportunities for capacity building and training.
The two other agreements with China were the amendment to the framework with the accession of the Philippines in the Early Harvest Program, and the amendment on trade in goods of the framework agreement between China and Vietnam.
Had it not for the postponement, the 10 heads of states of ASEAN were supposed to issue the Cebu Declaration on Monday, Dec. 11, approving the acceleration of attaining the so-called ASEAN Community, incorporating the three pillars - economy, socio-cultural and security and political - to achieve a comprehensive integrated regional bloc by 2015 instead of 2020 next week.
The Cebu Declaration was supposed to be a result of the submission of a blueprint on the acceleration of the ASEAN economic community to the leaders by the Trade Ministers.
As of Friday night, ASEAN Economic Ministers have agreed to provide for "flexibilities" in the agreement to give other countries enough time to adjust to an accelerated economic integration.
Kabigting said that ministers from Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand were one in saying that, "We are used to that wording" and conveyed to the Foreign Ministers to use the word "flexibility" in the Leaders’ Declaration.
Trade and Industry Secretary Peter B. Favila told the ASEAN Senior Economic Ministers during a Thursday night meeting of the need to provide for flexibilities and safety nets to members that cannot yet cope with an accelerated speed of trade liberalization.
"I expressed my position on the fast-paced move of integration process that we should put in place the appropriate safety nets because if we look at the character of ASEAN there are members who are already strong but there are also members who need a certain degree of flexibilities and policy space," Favila said.
For instance, the Philippines, the country coordinator for electronics, has asked for flexibility for its downstream electronics like airconditioners, washing machines or those finished products with chips as they want to protect this sector until 2010.
The Philippines also asked for flexibilities on certain agricultural products like pineapple and rice.
He stressed the need to adopt various safety nets because when a country embraces liberalization there is no turning back only to realize later that they were not yet ready, after all.
"The first casualty of such haste would be the fisherfolk and farmers. I want the marginalized sector be part of the development process in ASEAN," he said.
