Asean summits moot East Asian Free Trade pact

A flurry of meetings among Asian leaders Sunday raised the possibility of forging a regional free trade pact, which is likely to be raised at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month.

"What we are seeing now is a couple of ideas on having a more integrated market in terms of trade and investment in the region," Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kadama said after the East Asia Summit in Cha-am, 130 kilometres south-west of Bangkok.

The East Asia Summit comprised leaders from the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) plus their six closest regional partners - Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

The East Asia Summit followed two days of Asean summits and bilateral meetings with the six partners.

A central theme was boosting regional trade at a time when Asia's traditional markets - the US and European Union - have shrunk because of the global financial crisis.

Asean will fully implement a free trade agreement among original members Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, on January 1, 2010.

The bloc has inked partial trade pacts (FTAs) with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, which are at various stages of implementation.

"On the East Asia FTA, leaders noted the potential for greater intra-regional trade, which reached 480 billion dollars in 2008," the final statement of the Asean+3 summit said, in instructing the economic ministers to study the proposal.

Both Japan and Australia used the Cha-am summits to push for their own visions of more cooperation within the region.

Newly elected Japan Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama shared his somewhat vague vision of an "East Asia Community" while Australian Prime Minister Keven Rudd mooted an Asia-Pacific Community.

But a regional FTA may prove a more tangible target.

"I think an FTA will proceed before a long term community being established," Kadama said.

A regional trade pact, perhaps including the US, will also be raised at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held in Singapore on November 13-14, he noted.

"In APEC there is also a proposal that on an APEC level we should have a more ambitious free trade area," Kadama said.

Asean is still a long way from signing an FTA with the European Union, which recently "paused" its negotiations with the region on the issue for lack of progress.