At the ASEAN-Canada Trade Negotiating Committee (Acafta) held recently in Bali, both parties agreed to complete the negotiations within a period of two years, said the regional bloc’s chief negotiator, Dyatmiko Bris Vitjaksono.
Acafta will be Asean’s first free trade agreement with America, according to Indonesia’s Ministry of Commerce’s Director General of International Trade Negotiations.
A feasibility study cited by local media today suggests that a Canada-ASEAN free trade agreement that liberalizes trade in goods, reduces non-tariff measures and improves trade facilitation can increase ASEAN countries’ gross domestic product (GDP) to $39.4 billion.
The study itself estimated that signing this agreement would result in an estimated GDP increase for Canada of around 5.1 billion greenbacks.
The Southeast Asian regional bloc has signed and implemented free trade agreements with China, South Korea, Japan and India, among others.
In China’s case, the entry into force of the free trade agreement meant ASEAN became its top trading partner three years ago, with annual exchanges already accounting for 15.4 percent of the Asian giant’s total foreign trade value.
ASEAN is also an important part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest free trade agreement, which has been in force since January last year in the very region with the highest economic growth in the world.
The total gross domestic product of RCEP signatory countries is about $26.2 trillion, or 30 percent of global GDP, and their trade accounts for 28 percent of world trade.
ode/mpm