FTA vital for East Asia says ADB
Gulf Daily News, 9 Feb 2006
FTA vital for East Asia says ADB
TOKYO: East Asia should set up a unified region-wide free trade pact to help boost trade and investment and further promote regional economic integration, the president of the Asian Development Bank said yesterday.
Establishing such a single region-wide free trade agreement (FTA) would help create a common market in Asia, a prerequisite for a common Asian currency in the future, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said.
"What is most desirable is to consolidate various trade agreements in East Asia into a single East Asian FTA," Kuroda said.
Having too many bilateral free trade pacts would increase administrative costs. Various rules of origin - a rule used for FTAs to decide if traded goods qualify for preferential tariff treatment - should be harmonised as well, he said.
The most politically realistic way to achieve a single East Asia FTA will be to have key economic players in the region, such as Japan, China, South Korea, India and Australia, agree on free trade deals with Asean and then try to consolidate them into one unified pact, Kuroda said.
Although the ADB does not interfere in state-to-state trade negotiations, it will recruit more trade experts and its office of regional economic integration - established last year at Kuroda’s initiative - will help analyse trade issues and data, he said.
