FTA with EU may cut Burma out
The Nation (Bangkok) | 9 February 2007
FTA with EU may cut Burma out
A planned free-trade agreement (FTA) between Asean and the European Union hit a snag recently, as the EU might not sign if the agreement includes Burma, says a senior Thai official.
Trade Negotiations Department deputy director-general Chana Kanaratanadilok said although the Asean delegates proposed to their EU counterparts that negotiations should be done on a region-to-region basis, the EU might not sign the agreement with some countries, such as Burma.
Some EU members prefer a strong approach in pressing the Burmese junta on human-rights issues. EU officials also insisted that Asean members that were not ready to join the Asean-EU FTA, such as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, should join only when they are ready.
Chana represented Thailand at the Asean-EU FTA talks late last month, when officials discussed the format of the agreement before sending it for approval by the Council of Europe prior to the start of formal negotiations.
Chana said that if the members could not agree on the format of the agreement, then negotiations would be delayed further. Plus the EU could choose to enter into FTAs with individual Asean members, which would come at a disadvantage to those members that did not enter into such deals.
"Now Asean must discuss how to deal with the Burma issue - whether it will agree to discuss it as ’10 plus one’ or ’nine plus one’. Thailand wants to see negotiations conducted on behalf of the region, in order to boost its bargaining power," said Chana. "Even now, you can see how the Asean talks have become complicated," he added.
Phasit Poomchoosri, a Commerce Ministry official, said Thailand believed all 10 Asean countries should participate at the negotiating table but that if they were not ready, they might not have to sign the agreement.
"We don’t want to see any country isolated," he said.
As for progress in the Asean-South Korean FTA talks set to resume next month, he said Thailand refused to sign the agreement with South Korea, because that country refused to open its market to Thai rice. This time, Thailand will ask South Korea to open its market to certain types of Thai products, such as fragrant rice.
