The ASEAN Senior Economic Officials’ Meeting (SEOM) convened in Hanoion October 27 to review and discuss a range of important documents tospeed up the building of the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015.
All of these documents will be submitted to the Meeting of the ASEANEconomic Community Council scheduled to take place in Hanoi onOctober 28.
SEOM debated the Protocol to ProvideSpecial Consideration for Rice and Sugar and the Protocol to Implementthe Eighth Package of Commitments under the ASEAN Framework Agreement onServices in order to strengthen cooperation within the bloc.
Le Quang Lan, Deputy Director of the Multilateral Trade PolicyDepartment under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, said theeighth package covers a broad scope of commitments on 80 out of thetotal 150 service sub-sectors. The protocol was designed to encouragethe flow of investment in services among the regional countries, hesaid.
With this package of commitments, ASEAN isstriving to create a more open framework compared with what the bloc wasperforming in pursuant to the regulations of the World TradeOrganisation (WTO), Lan added.
At the meeting,delegates showed optimism about the successful building of the ASEANEconomic Community by 2015 and put forward recommendations to thegovernments of the ASEAN nations to implement the Community roadmap.
Srirat Sartapana, Director of the Trade Negotiations Department underthe Thai Ministry of Commerce, said the target is achievable by 2015,but ASEAN members must work together closely to separately address eachof the issues.
The governments need to work outreasonable policies to overcome trade barriers and expand economiccooperation with regional nations, the official said.
Meanwhile, the Assistant to the Philippines Secretary of Trade andIndustry, Vicente Ramon, urged economic ministers to have a strongervoice and asked for inter-sector coordination to step up regionalcooperation not only in the economy but also in social aspects.
Also on Oct. 27, SEOM finalised documents on the granting ofcertificate of origin to goods from ASEAN and China , in a move tofacilitate bilateral trade./.
All of these documents will be submitted to the Meeting of the ASEANEconomic Community Council scheduled to take place in Hanoi onOctober 28.
SEOM debated the Protocol to ProvideSpecial Consideration for Rice and Sugar and the Protocol to Implementthe Eighth Package of Commitments under the ASEAN Framework Agreement onServices in order to strengthen cooperation within the bloc.
Le Quang Lan, Deputy Director of the Multilateral Trade PolicyDepartment under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, said theeighth package covers a broad scope of commitments on 80 out of thetotal 150 service sub-sectors. The protocol was designed to encouragethe flow of investment in services among the regional countries, hesaid.
With this package of commitments, ASEAN isstriving to create a more open framework compared with what the bloc wasperforming in pursuant to the regulations of the World TradeOrganisation (WTO), Lan added.
At the meeting,delegates showed optimism about the successful building of the ASEANEconomic Community by 2015 and put forward recommendations to thegovernments of the ASEAN nations to implement the Community roadmap.
Srirat Sartapana, Director of the Trade Negotiations Department underthe Thai Ministry of Commerce, said the target is achievable by 2015,but ASEAN members must work together closely to separately address eachof the issues.
The governments need to work outreasonable policies to overcome trade barriers and expand economiccooperation with regional nations, the official said.
Meanwhile, the Assistant to the Philippines Secretary of Trade andIndustry, Vicente Ramon, urged economic ministers to have a strongervoice and asked for inter-sector coordination to step up regionalcooperation not only in the economy but also in social aspects.
Also on Oct. 27, SEOM finalised documents on the granting ofcertificate of origin to goods from ASEAN and China , in a move tofacilitate bilateral trade./.
