Europe’s recent travails have been of keen interest to us in Asia, especially as they triggered talk of a recurrence of the financial meltdown of 2008. So it was with both eagerness and curiosity that I agreed to take part last May 13 in a panel discussion on the subject of “Asian Expectations of Europe’s Role in the Global Economy” at the Asia Pacific-German Conference in Singapore. The panelists included German Minister of Economics and Technology, Rainer Bruderle, Dr. Jurgen Hambrecht, Chairman of BASF, Singapore Minister Lim Hng Kiang, Dr. Surin Pitsuan, ASEAN Secretary General, and the moderator was David Marsh of the London and Oxford Group. The audience consisted of 760 CEOs and businessmen, mostly German. Below, I reproduce parts of my remarks and some other thoughts on the forum subject. Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines and the European Union (EU) have made a great deal of progress during the fourth round of negotiations on most trade issues in the proposed Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) that will serve as the general framework of relations between the Manila and the EU. Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines – Just a fifth of Philippine-based firms have been taking advantage of a regional trade pact although the number may increase as interest in newer agreements grows. Read the rest of this entry »

JAKARTA: Indonesia has asked to rewrite a new regional trade pact with China, citing fears of job losses because of a flood of cheap Chinese imports across various sectors, officials said Wednesday. The government has sought to maintain 228 tariff lines for another two years rather than cut them as required under the Asean-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA), which Jakarta first signed in 2002 and took full effect on January 1. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Aug. 14, 2009, yet another free trade agreement (FTA) that would shape the course of trade in the Philippines, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and India took flight from Bangkok. As with the case of FTAs preceding it, the event took place without much fanfare. ASEAN Trade Ministers signed on to the ASEAN-India FTA Trade in Goods (TIG) Agreement then later went on to discuss other matters of interest to the region. The event even barely made the front page of newspapers. Read the rest of this entry »

FREE TRADE: There is this old line that if we could convince the Chinese to drink their tea with sugar and if we could get even just one percent of the ensuing sugar needs, we would have to plant half of our arable land with sugarcane to meet the demand but would then be able to balance the national budget and pay off our foreign debt. Read the rest of this entry »

A new free trade area comes into effect on Friday, incorporating China and the six founding members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).

These countries include Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines – As today’s global economy offers unparalleled opportunities for all countries across the world, continuing to expand trade by lowering barriers of goods and services is in the common interest of China and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. Our concerted and unremitting efforts during the past decade will soon reap fruits: the full establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) on Jan. 1, 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Milestone in free trade in regional bloc

MANILA, Philippines—Starting 1 January 2010, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand can import and export almost all goods across their borders at no tariff as the Common Effective Preferential Tariffs for Asean Free Trade Area (CEPT-Afta) takes effect. Read the rest of this entry »

For domestic industries to fully recover from damages caused by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) said that the government must invoke an article of the Asean Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) that would temporarily exempt the country from the zero-tariff regime beginning next year under the Asean Free Trade Area-Common Effective Preferential Tariff (AFTA-CEPT) scheme. Read the rest of this entry »