Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 9 • Number 14 • 27th April 2005
Asian, African Leaders Sign Cooperation Pact Amidst Flurry Of FTA Negotiations
Asian and African leaders signed an agreement 24 April promising economic, political and security co-operation, including expanded trade. The pact coincides with a flurry of free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations involving countries from the two continents.
Trade figured high on the agenda during the two-day summit meeting at Bandung, Indonesia, which culminated in the ‘New Asia-Africa Strategic Partnership’ agreement. Representatives from several of the 106 countries in attendance vowed to put forward a more united front in WTO negotiations. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called on developed countries to dismantle trade-distorting agricultural subsidies and barriers to farm exports from developing countries. He also urged countries to protect biodiversity, and to lower obstacles to the movement of people and services. Trade between the two continents is becoming more significant, notably because of China’s rapidly-expanding imports of energy and primary resources from countries across Africa.
At the Bandung meeting, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told the press that his country was aiming to conclude an FTA with India within a month, after two-and-a-half years of negotiations. Singapore held a fifth round of FTA talks with Chile, New Zealand and Brunei from 18-23 April; the four countries are hoping to finalise the terms of a free-trade area that would span three continents this year. Over the same week, an FTA was also signed between New Zealand and Thailand to cut tariffs on goods. The agreement will be extended to cover trade in services in three years.
During a recent trade and investment mission to Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea, Malaysia’s trade minister said on 22 April that her country was working towards signing a comprehensive trade pact with Japan by December. Negotiations for the agreement started in December 2003.
In Riyadh, officials from China and the six oil-producing Arabian peninsula states that form the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) announced on 24 April that they were aiming to reach a deal to cut tariffs on goods by the end of 2006. The GCC is also in free trade talks with the EU. GCC members Oman and the United Arab Emirates are negotiating separate bilateral FTAs with the US.
The relatively recent fashion for bilateral and regional trade agreements in Asia and Africa thus appears to be growing, in spite of concerns that the proliferation of such accords is undermining the multilateral trading system.
ICTSD reporting; "Nations conduct 5th round of trade talks," ASSOCIATED PRESS, 25 April 2005; "United States pursues more free-trade agreements in the Middle East," DAILY STAR (Beirut), 26 April 2005; "Thailand signs FTA with NZ," BANGKOK POST, 20 April 2005; "PM calls for removal of trade barriers," REDIFF.com, 23 April 2005; "Trade must help the poor: PM," THE STATESMAN, 24 April 2005; "China, Gulf states aim for free trade pact in 2006," REUTERS, 24 April 2005; "Singapore, India to seal trade pact in a month," REUTERS, 25 April 2005; "Rafidah: Nearing Accord," SIN CHEW DAILY, 26 April 2005; "Japan-Malaysia economic pact may be signed in December," THE STAR (Malaysia), 23 April 2005.