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Japan signs pact with ASEAN for eventual free trade deal
AP - Bali
Japan is working towards keeping its big stake in Southeast
Asia, while doing away with barriers standing in the way of mutual trade.
An agreement, signed between Japan and ASEAN, at an
annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is aimed at preparing
the way for a Japan-ASEAN free trade agreement. Both sides hope to begin negotiating
such an agreement within the next decade.
Japan has traditionally been ASEAN’s largest trading
partner and investor, with two-way trade amounting to US$ 99.2 billion in 2001
or 14.4 per cent of ASEAN’s total trade. However, Japan has seen its ASEAN
trade drop from a peak of US$ 121.2 billion in 1995. Meanwhile, China’s
and India’s trade with Southeast Asia has been rising.
ASEAN and Japan will “progressively eliminate
duties and other restrictive regulations of commerce on substantially all trade
in goods in order to establish a free trade agreement,” the accord says.
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