Six ASEAN member countries intend to cut their tariffs to zero for all merchandise traded among them as of January 1, 2010, the ASEAN Secretariat reported on Nov. 16.
The six countries are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
The bloc’s General Secretary Surin Pitsuwan said the move is a result of the liberalisation efforts since the introduction of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1992.
He also said that it was a demonstration of how ASEAN is moving on track towards tariff liberalisation amid the global struggle against a rising tide of protectionism.
Last year, ASEAN's total GDP reached 1.5 trillion USD, a level that almost doubles that of 2003. ASEAN trade was on a similar upward trend of 1.7 trillion USD last year compared to 824 billion USD in 2003.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the region grew from 24 billion USD in 2003 to 60 billion USD in 2008./.