ISDS Case Map
ASEAN
The stalled Doha round of talks of the World Trade Organization is what is driving the process of integration in East Asia, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Thursday.
Vietnam's assistant foreign affairs minister says Canada and members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are "optimistic" about a free trade agreement, but doesn't want to speculate as to when such a deal would come to fruition.
A deal may come only nearer to 2015, the year Asean is targeting for the creation of a single market for its 10 members, Asean secretary general Ong Keng Yong said.
On the contentious issue of transboundary movement of toxic waste, which inclusion in the JPEPA had caused an uproar locally, Philippine Trade Secretary Peter B Favila said it is likely that the same provision would be carried in the Japan-ASEAN trade deal.
Asean and the European Union have agreed to allow Burma to participate in free trade agreement talks with the EU, amid signs the military junta is preparing to highlight what it claims are recent democratic advancements.
Fearing that the gains promised by an ASEAN-EU free trade agreement (FTA) will turn out to be little more than illusions, a discussion has urged the members of ASEAN to stick together and remain "critical" during the upcoming negotiations.
ASEAN is being fragmented by intensifying US-China competition for regional influence, which is putting a premium on bilateralism with the big powers at the expense of ASEAN's ambition toward more regional multilateralism.
US President George W Bush confirmed Friday that he will attend his first summit with all 10 Southeast Asian leaders, to talk about trade and security, in September. "I suggested to the president that we should consider a suitable new initiative, which perhaps would be able to take our relations another step forward," said Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong.
