ASEAN's economic integration on track

The Association of the Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) said on Monday that economic integration between its members is well on track.

"By Jan. 1, 2010, we will eliminate our tariffs gradually. The effective implementation of this major milestone in ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) will bring the region closer to the ASEAN Economic Community where free flow of goods is one of its major objectives," said the body's Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan before ambassadors for the organization in a briefing here.

"The AFTA will bring positive effect for the region's economic life. There will be more jobs and investment. Still, in our scorecard, we still have many commitments unimplemented," said Surin.

However, he said, many small, medium enterprises (SMEs) will be "suffocated" by the agreement.

"That's why we have to find solution to tackle this problem," he said.

By Jan. 1, 2010, all tariffs for products in the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Inclusion List of the six original signatories to the CEPT Agreement, representing 99.65 percent of total tariff lines, would be eliminated for intra-ASEAN trade. These account for 87.2 percent total intra-ASEAN imports.

The remaining ASEAN members would also not be far behind as 98.86 percent of their products have tariffs within 0-5 percent range.

Source: Xinhua