EU, ASEAN nations arranging FTA
Jakarta Post, Indonesia
EU, ASEAN nations arranging FTA
5 May 2011
The European Union (EU) says it is talking with individual ASEAN member nations to bolster support for a potential ASEAN/EU Free Trade Agreement to help both blocs.
In addition to Singapore and Malaysia, “several other [nations] are seriously thinking on engaging the same route. It is also the case with Indonesia and European countries,” EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said on Wednesday at the first EU-Asian business summit at the Jakarta Convention Center.
Karel said free trade agreements would be a big opportunity for every ASEAN member state.
“So we see a big effort to make a free trade agreement between EU and ASEAN,” he said.
According to Karel, free trade agreements ultimately depended on business support for success, in addition to support from the authorities, governments and the EU commission.
“It is up to private businesses to demonstrate that [an FTA] can have result to engage, invest and make trade as a goal,” he told reporters.
“The result will be lots of new business contracts that will result in more trade and more investment,” he added.
The large number of delegates attending the inaugural EU-ASEAN business summit in Jakarta – including about 300 European delegates and 200 ASEAN delegates – underscored the mutual beneficial connections between EU and ASEAN.
“Put simply, EU needs ASEAN and ASEAN needs EU,” he said.
Karel said that the EU offered ASEAN a potential market of 500 million consumers, while the EU was attracted to ASEAN’s estimated 7.8 percent growth rate in 2011.
Annual trade between EU and ASEAN tops US$ 200 billion a year.
“I want to see that grow even more as Europe has many of the world’s leading companies offering the best products and the best services on the global market place,” Karel said.
Intensifying EU-ASEAN trade would benefit the people of ASEAN as it would create more jobs, offer more choices to consumers and improve the lives of people in both ASEAN and the EU.
“This event shows EU and ASEAN are truly open for business and I look forward to seeing this event growing even larger and more successful in the future,” he said.
