IP/06/624
Brussels, 16 May 2006
EU welcomes EU-ASEAN Vision Group report on closer trade links The EU has today welcomed the final report of the EU-ASEAN Vision Group, which was established in 2005 to study ways of strengthening and deepening the trade relations between the EU and ASEAN. The Group was established by EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and his ASEAN colleagues in an attempt to bring fresh thinking to the economic relations between the EU and ASEAN. The report is an important part of Commissioner Mandelson's wider strategy to renew EU trade policy towards Asia.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said: "The ASEAN region is changing fast and our trade relations must change with it. Europe’s approach to Asia is often focused on China to the exclusion of the rest of Asia and this Vision Group was an important part of changing that. We now have a strong basis for further consideration of an FTA. Myself, my ASEAN colleagues and the Member States of the EU are now in a firm position to map out next steps – which we have agreed to do swiftly".
At the centre of the Vision Group’s work was a feasibility study on a possible EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement. The Vision Group’s report offers a strong case for such an agreement, suggesting that it would boost trade in goods and services and help attract new EU investment to ASEAN, as well as encouraging ASEAN’s increasing investment in the EU. Closer economic ties, especially where they extended into the areas of services trade would bring benefits for both regions.
The report has suggested a range of avenues for bringing the EU and ASEAN closer together: widening access to the EU market, improving protection of intellectual property rights to help attract investment; aligning some of the EU and ASEAN's regulatory standards to make it easier for businesses to trade.
For more information on EU-ASEAN trade relations visit: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/index_en.htm
