Sharing benefits of globalisation through an EU-ASEAN FTA?

In the aftermath of the stalled launch of a new WTO round in Seattle in 1999, Singapore and Japan initiated a joint study into a possible bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The resulting ‘New-Age Economic Partnership Agreement’ was signed in 2002, reduced barriers in trade and investment in goods as well as services, technical standards and public procurement. Other FTAs followed including a US-Singapore FTA in 2003. In response, other ASEAN countries initiated negotiations towards bilateral FTAs, such as Thailand with India and Malaysia with Japan etc. Moreover, China declared its intention to enter into a FTA with the ASEAN by 2012. The failure at Cancun in 2003 implies that the Doha Development Agenda will not be achieved within the time-frame set. In this environment, the question of a feasibility of an inter-regional EU-ASEAN FTA is investigated. ASEAN’s trade policy regime is opening up and the gains of further tariff elimination will be modest, because most ASEAN countries already apply low tariffs, while those of the EU on import from ASEAN are low as well – e.g. for Singapore the tariff rate is merely 1.04 per cent (trade weighted). Nevertheless, a further reduction will benefit both EU and ASEAN because a significant share of imports is intra-firm trade, with EU firms operating from ASEAN as a production platform for the EU markets. However, for an EU-ASEAN FTA to be worthwhile, it must generate benefits on issues relating to non-tariff barriers to trade, esp. technical standards, SPS and mutual recognition of testing. Further significant benefits to EU and ASEAN may be realised by advancing liberalisation of international trade in services (e.g. banking and insurance licences, air and sea transport). Reducing restrictions on foreign direct investment in selected␣service sectors is bound to enhance investment flows from the EU to ASEAN.