One economic community for all Southeast Asians?
By Jon Fernquest[Introduction|Vocabulary|Article]
[Reading Questions|Answers]
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Does size mean power for countries like Thailand, China, Singapore, Japan, and the United States?
What makes a country powerful? Is it just wealth like Singapore has? Or is territorial size and population also important?
Big countries are leaders? Small countries are followers?
Do the biggest countries, like China, have the power to do what they want with their exchange rate and economy? Or at least the luxury of cooperating a lot slower than other smaller countries?
Is this the way the world works?
If it is, the quicker ASEAN forms one economic community, the better off Southeast Asians might be, economically speaking.
There are already plans for an Asean Economic Community (AEC) for 2020, but a group of countries led by Singapore and Thailand want to aim for an even earlier date.
They're worried about being able to compete with much larger economies like China and India.
Today's article is about the efforts being made by ASEAN member states to work towards an Asean Economic Community.
To see the issue of free trade from a different perspective, the perspective of small farmers, check out last weekend's Perspective section in the Bangkok Post.
Reading Questions
Here are some questions to guide your reading (See answers at end):1. What ASEAN-related event is happening in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next week?
(Hint: Skim the first part of the article for "next week").
2. What different kinds of meetings does ASEAN have? What is the significance of a "trade and economic ministers' meeting" ? (Note: Answering this question requires some research outside the article).
3. What is the biggest economic integration problem that the countries of Southeast Asia face?
4. How much economic integration and freedom is proposed with the Asean Economic Community (AEC)?
5. How would an Asean Economic Community help Southeast Asian countries?
6. Which countries are pushing for an earlier Asean Economic Community?
7. How much earlier are they pushing for?
Article
Asean urged to get serious about becoming single bloc
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's trade minister yesterday called on Southeast Asian countries to get serious about tackling hurdles to regional integration, and try to form a European-style economic bloc by 2015 - five years earlier than originally planned.
Although tariffs on most products have been cut under the region's free trade pact, Rafidah Aziz said weak implementation and administrative red-tape are hampering efforts to integrate the 10 economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations into a single market and production base.
"It's nice to say (we want to) become champions of free trade and yet you don't go and look back into your own problems,'' she told reporters ahead of an Asean trade and economic ministers' meeting in Kuala Lumpur next week.
"Each government must take its responsibility seriously to address market issues. The policies are there, the measures are there but the implementation (is not) 100% ... the bureaucratic process in every Asean country must really be looked into, so that there are no snags operationally.''
The Asean Economic Community or AEC, slated for 2020, allows for a free flow of goods, services and people across the region but does not call for a single currency.
Several members, led by Singapore and Thailand, are spearheading calls for the plan to be brought forward by five years to 2015, amid concerns the region may be eclipsed by economic giants China and India.
"If it is possible, we would like to accelerate to 2015,'' Rafidah said.
"If we can become a seamless, one-entity market ... and production base, then we can compete with any big markets of the world.''
In a separate statement, the Trade Ministry said Asean ministers would work on new measures to push forward the AEC to 2015, including speeding up liberalisation of trade in services at their annual meeting on Aug 22.
They are also expected to draw up further measures to enhance Asean's competitiveness as an investment base, before meeting key trading partners United States, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to review negotiations on free trade pacts.
The statement said Asean and the United States are expected to finalise an agreement to facilitate trade and investment, including removing non-tariff barriers - just one step short of a full-fledged free trade pact.
Asean has a market of 530 million people but a wide economic chasm divides its six more developed nations - Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and the Philippines - and its four newer members - communist Vietnam and Laos, military-ruled Burma and Cambodia. AP
Vocabulary (in discussion above)
tackling hurdles - solving problems
a European-style economic bloc - a grouping of countries for economic purposes like the European Community (1957) and then the European Union (1992) (Europe has had a long history of economic blocs)
administrative red-tape - government procedures that slow a process down, cause delays, and make the process less efficient
It's nice to say... - it sounds good to say (easy to say, difficult to do)
champions of x - people who defend and support x
bureaucracy - the rules and procedures followed by government departments (that are complicated and cause long delays)
the bureaucratic process - the process of implementing government policy with government bureaucracy
snags - small problems
slated for - scheduled for
spearheading - leading (proactively trying to get something)
x eclipsed by y - y becomes more important than x
seamless - complete, without breaks or gaps
production base - manufacturing capabilities of the country or countries
non-tariff barriers - restrictions on imports that do not rely on taxing imports, such as health or quality regulations (Japan), quotas, foreign exchange controls, or government subsidies (See Wikipedia)
one step short of x - almost finished with x
full-fledged - complete (with everything needed to make it complete) [Thai: somboon]
chasm - a very deep crack in the earth, rock, or ice
a wide economic chasm - a very large difference or gap in economic development and wealth
Answer Key:
1. What ASEAN-related event is happening in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next week?
(Hint: Skim the first part of the article for "next week").
Malaysia is hosting an Asean trade and economic ministers' meeting in Kuala Lumpur next week.
2. What different kinds of meetings does ASEAN have? What is the significance of a "trade and economic ministers' meeting" ? (Note: Answering this question requires some research outside the article).
3. What is the biggest economic integration problem that the countries of Southeast Asia face?
Although a free trade pact has been made, and tariffs have been cut, government bureaucracy (administrative red-tape) has made it difficult (hampered) the quick integratation Asean economies.
4. How much economic integration and freedom is proposed with the Asean Economic Community (AEC)?
The Asean Economic Community would "allow the free flow of goods, services and people across thre region but does not call for a single currency."
5. How would an Asean Economic Community help Southeast Asian countries?
If all the countries of Southeast Asia joined together and created one market and one production base, then they could "compete with the big markets of the world" better.
To avoid being displaced (eclipsed) by the larger Asian economies of China and India.
One production base would eliminate redundancies and achieve economies of scale.
For instance, individual steel companies in the member countries might merge thereby reducing costs and also sell to a much larger unified Southeast Asian market.
6. Which countries are pushing for an earlier Asean Economic Community?
Several members led by Singapore and Thailand.
7. How much earlier are they pushing for?
Five years earlier. They want to push the date up to 2015 from 2020.
