EU-Asean FTA Negotiations Unlikely To Succeed, Says Academician

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 (Bernama) -- A successful free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is unlikely because the Asean nations are unwilling to consider tackling the non-tariff and regulatory barriers, an academician said Thursday.

European Centre for International Political Economy's co-director Razeen Sally said the alternative was for the EU to strengthen regulatory cooperation on all trade issues with Asean countries collectively and individually, instead of going for an FTA or FTAs.

"The EU, which wants a strong and serious FTA, is unlikely to get it from Asean collectively for the reason I've mentioned," he said.

"Secondly it's because Asean lacks a common negotiation machinery to deal with EU, thus it takes so long to come up with even a basic common position," he told reporters after the seminar entitled "The EU-Asean FTA in the Context of the EU's New FTA Negotiations in Asia: Something Serious this Time?".

In May this year, EU and Asean agreed to launch FTA talks. There is currently no bilateral FTA negotiations between the EU and Malaysia.

Sally said although both sides of have agreed to negotiations, he foresees a bleak future as the existing FTAs that Asean countries have, bilaterally and collectively, are weak.

On the ongoing FTA talks between Malaysia and the United States, Sally said although still ongoing, it was "reflectively blocked".

"I don't think that the Malaysian government is in a position domestically to make the relevant concessions because what it means is significantly opening up the Malaysian market in services and investment, plus having a regulatory overhaul on various areas, all of which are related somehow to the Bumiputera policy," he said.

"I don't think it's possible to address these very sensitive domestic issues through an FTA initially," he added.

Asked if the New Economic Policy (NEP) was an impediment, Sally said: "Yes, clearly. That has been the major impediment to doing a deal with the US.

"Besides being a co-director of the international economic policy think tank based in Brussels, Sally is also a senior lecturer in international political economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

His research focuses on trade policies in Asia, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and preferential trade agreements, and his new book on trade policy will be coming out next year.--

BERNAMA