EU optimistic about Thailand pact for next year
Written by changthai11 on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
TRADE
EU optimistic about Thailand pact for next year
ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT
BRUSSELS : A European Union trade negotiator has expressed optimism that Brunei, Singapore and Thailand could sign separate trade pacts before the present trade commissioner’s mandate expires in October next year.
Renate Nikolay, a member of EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson’s cabinet, said that ideally, she expected the three Asean members to finish exchanging offers for goods to be covered by the pact by next month. That would pave the way for further discussions between Mr Mandelson and his Asean counterparts in December at the sidelines of the Asean summit in Bangkok.
Mr Mandelson, however, announced plans to resign his post to rejoin the government of Gordon Brown over the weekend. The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Baroness Cathy Ashton, Labour’s leader in the House of Lords, won the support of Jose{aac} Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, to take his portfolio. Her appointment to Brussels may be temporary and may not be extended when its current mandate expires in 2009.
Negotiations on services, investment, and rules of origin have yet to begin, said Ms Nikolay.
”Talks with Asean are an important project for my commissioner. Since his first meeting with the Asean counterparts in Halong Bay (Vietnam) in 2005, we’ve found a lot of bumps including the Burma issue and the different levels of economic and social development among Asean members. Therefore we have to get the architecture right to launch a trade negotiations process,” she said.
The EU is a late partner at the negotiating table with Asean after China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. As it did not want to see the others get the best deals, it wanted to pursue comprehensive deals on more than goods on the bilateral basis, she conceded.
”Asean already has several layers of trade pacts. For example, the US just expressed interest to join transatlantic talks with Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand and Chile. We must allow ourselves to bring the EU and Asean markets closer as well by keeping the talks alive for those who are ready,” said Ms Nikolay.
The EU made bilateral approaches since last May with South Korea, India, Brunei, Singapore and Thailand. But China and Russia needed a different strategic approach, she added.
For Thailand, she conceded that the EU was still puzzled about the near- and long-term political landscape. But she remained optimistic that the strong work ethic of both the EU and Thailand would lead to further progress in a trade agreement.
