VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

 The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is the most ambitious regional trade agreement to date, covering 30 percent of both global trade and the world`s gross domestic product. To reinforce economic ties between 48 percent of the world`s population as its chief driving force, this regional grouping not only seeks to entrench itself at the heart of the Asia-Pacific economy but also stands to reap economic and political gains from the 16-member mega trade deal.

In this context, Minister of Trade Enggartiasto Lukita noted in his statement received in Jakarta on Monday that Indonesia is also contributing to the promotion of ASEAN economic cooperation with strategic partner countries, such as China, Japan, and South Korea. However, the economic cooperation between ASEAN and its strategic partners needs to be encouraged and enhanced, given the positive contribution to ASEAN`s economic integration and the ASEAN community, in general, he stressed.

The minister of trade conveyed this after attending the ASEAN meeting with partner countries held in Singapore. This meeting was a series of the 50th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting that took place on August 28-September 1, 2018. The RCEP will minimize these complex structural barriers by streamlining rules and procedures related to customs and trade-related infrastructure. In practical terms, ASEAN businesses will follow one set of procedures instead of having to navigate through five different sets of rules while trading with its RCEP partners.

ASEAN is again exploring economic cooperation with strategic partner countries, such as Canada, the United States (US), and Russia to encourage increased economic cooperation at consultation meetings between ASEAN and its strategic partners. These three countries have a significant contribution to the ASEAN economic integration through various work programs and initiatives though they do not have free trade agreements with ASEAN. The focus of the discussion of the ASEAN Economic Minister with Canada is the completion of the Joint Feasibility Study for the ASEAN-Canada Free Trade Agreement (Joint Feasibility Study for an ASEAN-Canada FTA).

"The results of this feasibility study are one of the references for the ASEAN and Canada to deepen their economic relations towards the establishment of the ASEAN-Canada free trade agreement. However, there are still many things that need to be done to sharpen the impact of the realization of this agreement," the trade minister explained.

Enggar, as the country coordinator, also remarked that the results of the joint feasibility study showed that the ASEAN-Canada free trade could improve economic growth and trade value of both.

In realizing the ASEAN-Canada free trade, in addition to the implementation of a joint feasibility study, the two parties also agreed to continue the implementation of exploration discussions that functioned as a forum for information exchange. In particular, regarding the level of ambition, the scope of agreement and approach adopted by both parties in negotiating free trade agreements is at a more technical level. In addition to consulting with Canada, the ASEAN economic minister also consulted with the US.

One of the initiatives lauded by the ASEAN is the US Internship Program launched in May 2018 that offers opportunities for students in the ASEAN to intern at six major US companies located in ASEAN.

"This apprentice program is beneficial for ASEAN and the US, considering that ASEAN students will have the opportunity to work in a large company, so that they can improve their skills, while US companies can get superior seeds," the minister of trade stated.

Meanwhile, at the consultation meeting with Russia, the ministers welcomed the finalization of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on ASEAN-Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Economic Cooperation. This MoU is planned to be signed on the sidelines of the 33rd ASEAN Summit in November 2018 in Singapore. In addition to the signing of the MoU, ASEAN and Russia have agreed to hold a Workshop "Regional Economic Integration in the Eurasian Economic Union and ASEAN" at the end of 2018 in order to provide an understanding of the economic integration of the two regions.

In the series of meetings of the ASEAN economic ministers, the ASEAN Economic Ministers together with the economic ministers of Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the Russian Federation, and the US also met and exchanged ideas on common challenges faced in the economic field in the future. The meeting was packaged in the 6th Economic Minister of the East Asia Summit (EAS) working lunch format

On the occasion, the ministers conveyed congratulations to the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) on the occasion of the 10th anniversary celebrations and welcomed the report of the 11th ERIA Governing Board Meeting and lauded the contribution of ERIA in supporting regional economic integration.  (ant)