US moves to break free trade impasse with Southeast Asia
Zee News (India) - 3 May 2005
US moves to break free trade impasse with Southeast Asia
Washington, May 03: Deputy US Secretary of State Robert Zoellick is determined to break a free trade impasse with Southeast Asia during a visit to the region this week but has cautioned that any agreement reached will have to be comprehensive.
Two years after President George W. Bush announced an initiative to forge free trade pacts with the export-driven, economically-booming Southeast Asian nations, Washington managed to strike only one deal so far — with Singapore.
But the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement cannot be a benchmark for Southeast Asia as the island city state is already largely tariff free.
So, many economies in the region have been following closely the protracted US-Thailand free trade negotiations, which seem to have been bogged down over us demands for stringent intellectual property rights protection and Thai requests for access to low-cost pharmaceuticals.
Zoellick told reporters at the weekend that he would try to break the free trade deadlock when he meets with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Bangkok, the first stop of his regional swing covering also Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines.
"One of the purposes of my visit, since in the case of the negotiations with Thailand the Thai Prime Minister plays a very key, leading role, will be to talk to him on some of the key elements to move this forward," said Zoellick, who was US Trade Representative (USTR) before his new assignment.
Bureau Report
