Ministers seek ways to boost EU-Asia trade

Date: 23/09/1999

By Shada Islam

EU AND Asian economics ministers will meet in Berlin early next month to study ways of boosting bilateral trade and investment flows and encouraging closer contacts between the two regions' business leaders.

EU-Asia relations are at a crucial point. Having spent the last 18 months trying to come up with ways of helping Asia's crisis-hit economies, Union governments must now devise a policy to encourage the region's faster-than-expected economic revival.

"We want to give the message that the Asian crisis is on its way to being over and we have to start preparing to deal with post-crisis Asia," said one Union official.

The speed at which the Asian economies bounce back will depend on their ability to boost trade flows and attract foreign investment. A 'vision group' of independent experts and academics suggested recently that the two regions should aim for free trade in goods and services by 2025. This is, however, seen as too ambitious by many in both regions.

Instead, the focus at the 9-10 October meeting will be on more pragmatic measures to remove barriers to EU-Asia trade by working on a 'trade facilitation action plan', which will also cover the elimination of non-tariff barriers.

The European Commission is suggesting that both sides should draw up a list of the most onerous obstacles. The 25 member states of ASEM (Asia Europe Meetings) would then review these annually to see how much progress had been made in removing them.

An investment action plan to be studied by ministers calls on countries to

identify measures which have been most effective in improving investment flows. The EU also wants the Asians to draw up a list of regulations which discourage investments - and then take action to remove them.

Asia's economic difficulties have cast a dark shadow over ASEM meetings this year. But in the run-up to the third ASEM summit in South Korea next October, officials on both sides say the emphasis must be on Asia's economic rebound rather than a post-mortem of the crisis.

ASEM has become an even more important forum for EU-Asian contacts because of difficulties in the Union's relationship with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since Burma joined in 1997. Plans to hold a ministerial meeting with ASEAN in March had to be cancelled because of the Union's refusal to invite representatives of Burma's military junta. Burma is not a member of ASEM, but seven ASEAN members are.

The Finnish presidency is trying to organise an EU-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting this autumn. Diplomats say the talks could be held in Thailand so that any invitation sent to Rangoon is signed by the Thai authorities rather than the Union. But recent violence in East Timor and renewed repression of pro-democracy forces by the Burmese junta could scupper the plan.

EU and Asian economics ministers will meet in Berlin early in October to study ways of boosting bilateral trade and investment flows and encouraging closer contacts between the two regions' business leaders.