EVOLVING TIES: It’s a golden opportunity to boost trade and investments between two of the world’s important groupings TODAY, the Asean-European Union Consultations in Phnom Penh will set the stage to bring Asean and EU economic relations back on track and on to a higher plane.These relations hit a wall in 2009 when the Asean Economic Ministers and the EU Trade Commissioner agreed to halt their Free Trade Agreement negotiations. That was unfortunate. The FTA had been envisaged to have been able to strengthen and deepen the region-to-region economic integration and help build regional capacity towards realising an Asean Economic Community by 2015. Indeed, this involvement would have provided an added dimension to the region- to-region collaboration and enriched the Asean process as well. The FTA would also have added impetus to the EU’s technical assistance programmes under the Trans-Regional EU-Asean Trade Initiative and other economic integration initiatives. It...

YB Dato Sri’ Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of International Trade and Industry Malaysia and the Hon Dr. Craig Emerson MP, Australian Minister for Trade and Competitiveness, signed the Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement (MAFTA) today in Kuala Lumpur. The Free Trade Agreement will come into force on the 1st of January 2013. The signing of the MAFTA, which complements the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, marks another important milestone in Malaysia and Australia economic relations. The Malaysian trade minister is confident that this agreement will benefit both countries. “I am happy to note that Malaysia will benefit from this Agreement, particularly in the area of goods where this is the first FTA Malaysia is signing that will grant our exporters duty free treatment for 100% of our goods as soon as the Agreement comes into force on 1st January 2013. Australian exporters to Malaysia will also be able to immediately enjoy significantly reduced tariffs for...

Malaysia is now the 14th most competitive economy in the world, according to a survey carried out by the Institute for Management Development (IMD) of Switzerland. The IMD survey measures how well countries manage their economic and human resources to increase prosperity. Fifty-nine countries were surveyed for this year’s Report. According to the IMD, Malaysia strengthened its overall competitiveness by two positions, moving up to 14th position from last year’s 16th position.  This ranking places Malaysia ahead of countries like Australia (15th), the United Kingdom (18th), Korea (22nd), China (23rd), Japan (27th), France (29th), Thailand (30th), Indonesia (42nd) and the Philippines (43rd). The 15 most competitive economies in the world, according to the IMD rankings, are: Hong Kong, the USA, Switzerland, Singapore, Sweden, Canada, Taiwan, Norway, Germany, Qatar, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Malaysia and Australia. Among countries with GDP per capita of less than...

 

Malaysia dan European Free Trade Association (EFTA) hari ini bersetuju untuk memulakan rundingan perjanjian perdagangan bebas. Rundingan ini hanya akan dimulakan pada tarikh yang dipersetujui oleh Malaysia dan EFTA kelak. Perjanjian ini dijangka akan memudahkan promosi perdagangan, pelaburan dan kerjasama ekonomi di kalangan negara-negara anggota. EFTA terdiri daripada Switzerland, Norway, Iceland dan Liechtenstein. Malaysia sedang berunding dengan Kesatuan Eropah bagi memuktamadkan perjanjian perdagangan bebas. Perjanjian yang serupa dengan EFTA ini akan meluaskan rangkaian perdagangan berkeutamaan Malaysia ke seluruh Eropah. Pengumuman hari ini telah dibuat di Kuala Lumpur oleh Dato’ Seri Mustapa Mohamed, Menteri Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri dan Johann N. Schneider Ammann, Menteri Hal Ehwal Ekonomi Switzerland yang mewakili EFTA. Kedua-dua Menteri turut menyaksikan majlis menandatangani skop perjanjian perdagangan bebas yang bakal diliputi di dalam perjanjian...

KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 (Bernama) — The implementation of the Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement (MAFTA) which came effect on Jan 1 2013 is expected to widen and deepen bilateral trade engagement. Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said under the MAFTA, Australian exporters to Malaysia enjoy significantly reduced tariffs for goods, reaching up to 99 per cent of product coverage by 2020. “The state of Victoria represents 19.6 per cent of Malaysia’s overall trade with Australia,” Mustapa said in his speech at the reception here Monday for the Victorian delegation taking part in the a trade mission to Malaysia, Singapaore and Indonesia. Malaysia’s exports to Victoria in 2012 represented 21.2 per cent of Malaysia’s total exports to Australia, and Malaysia’s imports from Victoria represented 12.6 per cent of Malaysia’s total imports in 2012. “We welcome strong interest from Victoria in promoting various sectors of interest as...

SINGAPORE, June 3 (Bernama) — The next round of negotiations on the EU-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is expected to resume in the fourth quarter, says Ambassador & Head of Delegation of the European Union to Malaysia, Luc Vandebon. He said both sides are working to resume the process as soon as possible. “Recently an informal video conference was held between my colleagues in Brussels and the Ministry of International Trade & Industry where both sides reaffirmed their interest to further discuss and negotiate on the proposed FTA. “After such a long break, the EU and Malaysia need to compare notes and take stock on the various issues, to verify if we are in sight of each other. If this “stock taking” process goes well, as I think and hope, then we will be in a position to resume the negotiations, maybe in autumn,” he said in response to Bernama in an email interview. The Technical Working Groups of the negotiating teams met in Kuala Lumpur last...

JAPAN does not think it will be “short-changed” by participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at an advanced stage of negotiations. Japan, the world’s third largest economy, has been in trade and investment and economic integration negotiations for a long while. “If we are not experienced, nobody is,” chief negotiator Koji Tsuruoka said at a media briefing on the sidelines of the 18th round of talks which started on July 15. “Short-changed? I don’t think so … it will be up to us. Better late than never,” he added. Japan, which got the go-ahead from its government to join the negotiations earlier this year, had to wait for the green light from the US Congress in accordance with the procedures in the US. “Japan is happy to join the negotiations under the chairmanship of Malaysia. We’ve had useful talks for a day-and-a-half now with another day to go. “We have learned a great deal and we have also expressed our views on a number of issues that...

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 (Bernama) — Malaysia and Pakistan will review the free trade agreement (FTA) between both countries by month-end, says International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed. The trade balance is currently in favour of Malaysia.“We export a lot to them and don’t seem be importing much in turn. So, they are asking us to address this trade imbalance,” he told reporters after attending a networking session with private sector agencies in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebration. “We are always looking at ways of ensuring fair trade with everyone. But there are things we can do, and others we cannot,” he said. Mustapa said a team from Islamabad would be here to discuss the FTA over two days . The FTA between Pakistan and Malaysia was signed in Kuala Lumpur in November 2007 — the first bilateral agreement between two member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Bilateral trade between Pakistan and Malaysia in 2012...

Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed welcomed China’s initiative to further advance APEC Leaders’ mandates on FTAAP to achieve deeper regional economic integration. Malaysia supported a study to be done as it would be a useful analytical work to evaluate not only the potential benefits, but also the impact, challenges and readiness of economies to meet the high standards envisaged in FTAAP. We are very supportive of the initiative to develop a roadmap for FTAAP and are also supportive of the decision to task officials to finalise this roadmap by the end of this year. This initiative however does not imply that negotiations on FTAAP will be launched immediately after the study is completed. APEC as a non-binding, voluntary forum will play a leadership role and provide intellectual inputs into the FTAAP process, and the FTAAP when agreed, will be pursued outside of APEC. FTAAP will not be inconsistent with Malaysia’s participation in the on-going negotiations on TPP and RCEP. On the...

Apec’s 25th anniversary is a good time to assess both the challenges and the opportunities faced by the organisation.

 

TWENTY-ONE leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Coopera-tion (Apec) economies meet in Beijing next week.

It will mark the organisation’s 25th anniversary.

So what has Apec got to show the world besides growing from 12-member economies in 1989 to 21 today?

How effective has it been in driving trade and investment?

What can these high-level meetings actually do to improve the global economy?

If one asks whether Apec’s main goal – easing the barriers to doing business in the region – has been achieved, the answer has to be yes. Here’s why.

To be sure, it’s had a head start. First, it accounts for 40% of the world’s population (2.8 billion people), 47% of global trade and 54% of the world’s real Gross Domestic Product in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.

Has it succeeded in easing tariff barriers? Again, yes.

When Apec was established in...