Progress Of AFTA-CER Cooperation

• The Seventh Consultation between ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) and Economic Ministers from Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations (CER) was held in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam on 14 September 2002.

• The main highlight of the meeting was the signing of the Joint Ministerial Declaration on AFTA-CER Closer Economic Partnership (CEP). Under the CEP, ASEAN and CER will deepen and broaden cooperation in all economic fields, reduce impediments to trade and cost of doing business, improve business competitiveness and include greater private sector involvement to address trade and investment problems.

• Areas of cooperation covered under the CEP Initial Work Programme include elimination of technical barriers to trade and non-tariff barriers (NTBs), customs cooperation, capacity building, trade and investment promotion and facilitation, standards and conformity assessment, e-commerce and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Ministers also agreed to set a target of doubling trade and investment by 2010 to ensure that the CEP will be result-oriented.

• The AFTA-CER Business Council (ACBC) was established to provide business inputs on ASEAN-CER relations by focusing on activities that could be undertaken by the private sector with minimal government support. The inaugural meeting for ACBC was held on 8 July 2002 in Kuala Lumpur. At that meeting, Malaysia was elected as Chairman of ACBC for two years. The Malaysian ACBC Chapter is led by the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM).

• In order to achieve the target of doubling trade and investment flows between ASEAN-CER, ACBC's work programme include possible elimination of NTBs, work on specific product Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs), development of ICT, human resource capacity building, accreditation of skills among training institutions, development of SME linkages and elimination of visa requirement for businessmen.

• The Ministers also agreed to the establishment of an AFTA-CER CEP Implementation and Coordination Group (ACCICG) which would be responsible for coordinating and directing the CEP work programme and to identify new areas of cooperation.

Latest progress on the AEM-CER Work Programme will be updated based on the outcomes of the Eighth Consultation between AEM-CER which will be held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on 4 September 2003.