Australia Moves Closer to ASEAN FTA

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade Mark Vaile today welcomed the steady progress achieved to date on the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement negotiations.

Meeting in Vientiane, Mr Vaile joined ASEAN and New Zealand ministers in discussing developments since the launch of FTA negotiations in February.

"The steady progress in the negotiations has been encouraging," Mr Vaile said.

"Australia is committed to closer economic engagement with the region. A comprehensive, high-quality agreement will both complement Australia's FTAs with individual ASEAN members and boost efforts for broader global trade reform."

Mr Vaile urged ASEAN to be as ambitious as possible in eliminating tariffs and opening up services markets. However he acknowledged the challenge of negotiations involving 12 countries of differing levels of development.

"Negotiations between a number of countries are by their nature complicated and we recognise that we will have to tackle difficult issues one step at a time if we are to secure the best possible outcome," Mr Vaile said.

"The assistance provided by Australia to help ASEAN countries participate fully in the negotiations is an important part of the process and has been warmly welcomed as making a real contribution."

Mr Vaile said Australia would continue to support ASEAN and announced that financial assistance would be provided to Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to facilitate their attendance at negotiating rounds in Australia.

During the talks Mr Vaile also urged ASEAN ministers to focus their energies towards the December World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, saying a successful outcome would enhance the efforts being made at the regional level.

The ASEAN region is a large and increasingly important market for Australian exporters with a population of 558 million and a GDP of $1,061 billion. In 2004-05 Australia's merchandise exports to ASEAN were worth $15 billion, an increase of 22 per cent from 2003-04. This represented 11.8 per cent of Australia's total merchandise exports, placing it above many other key export markets, including the European Union (10.9 per cent), China (10.2 per cent), the United States (7.4 per cent) and New Zealand (7.2 per cent).

Contacts: Richard Forbes (Mr Vaile's Office) 02 6277 7420