A series of consultations took place in the central coastal city of Da Nang on August 26 within the framework of the 42nd ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting (AEM-42), the fourth ASEAN Economic Council Meeting and related meetings.
At the ninth consultations between the AEM and the Chinese Minister of Commerce (AEM-MOFCOM), the ministers welcomed the completion of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) in Jan. 1, 2010, with the abolishment of tariffs on 97 percent of the goods in the common list among six ASEAN nations, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, (ASEAN-6) and China. More than 89 percent of current products are being freely traded among ASEAN-6 and China . Other remaining parties of ACFTA are implementing their pledges to reduce tariffs as scheduled in the ASEAN-China Agreement on Trade in Goods (TIG).
The conference also recognised the results of the forum on China-ASEAN Free Trade Area that was held in Nanning , China , on Jan. 7 and 8 this year to celebrate ACFTA implementation.
The ministers reached consensus on consolidating the implementation of the TIG Agreement and approved concrete rules of origin that have been transposed to HS2007 in ACFTA to be supplemented to the TIG Agreement.
They emphasised the importance of implementing the regulation to grant amended certificate of origin and said they hoped for the early signing of the second protocol on amending the TIG Agreement of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and China .
The ministers hailed China ’s proposal to organise a seminar on cross-border trade payment in Chinese yuan to facilitate ASEAN-China trade and economic cooperation.
They welcomed the progress of the feasibility study of the expanded Tonkin Gulf economic cooperation and said they hoped the study would be finalised as soon as possible.
At the 16 th consultations between the AEM and the Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, they expressed their pleasure that the flow of foreign investment capital from Japan into ASEAN increased from 4.7 billion USD in 2008 to 5.3 billion USD in 2009.
Japan ’s investment made up 13.4 percent of ASEAN’s total investment in 2009, they said.
They recognised the results of the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, the ASEAN-Japan Economic Cooperation, the Intelligent Community Initiative, the Asian sustainable chemical safety plan, the Asian knowledge economy initiative, the future prospect of the Japan-ASEAN economic cooperation and the ASEAN-Japan Industrial and Economic Cooperation Committee.
At the second Mekong-Japan industrial economic ministerial conference, the ministers welcomed business proposals to the Mekong-Japan industrial and economic cooperation that were presented on August 25, 2010 at the dialogue forum for Mekong and Japanese businesses and government.
They discussed and approved an action plan to implement the Mekong-Japan Industrial and Economic cooperation initiative to be reported to leaders of the fourth Mekong-Japan Summit slated for October 2010 in Hanoi .
Other events include the Mekong-Japan consultations, the AEM+3 consultations, the AEM+3 consultations with the East Asia Business Council (EABC), the AEM-RoK consultations and the AEM-CER (Closer Economic Relations countries of Australia and New Zealand ) consultations./.