EU-Asean Business Council launches Asean market access paper

KUALA LUMPUR: The European Union (EU)-Asean Business Council, the voice of European business in South-East Asia, has launched a region-wide position paper of recommendations to boost market access as well as increase trade and investment between Europe and Asean.

In a statement, the council said Europe had been the region’s largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the position paper explores ways to open up markets even further in line with the Asean Economic Community Blueprint. 

Top of the list is the elimination of non-tariff barriers to trade. The paper highlights issues such as cumbersome customs procedures with little harmonisation across Asean; and unpredictable application of regulations and procedures, impacting businesses’ ability to make informed long-term investment decisions.

Other issues include restrictions on foreign ownership and foreign competition, and lack of harmonised standards or lack of mutual recognition of such standards across the region.

In line with the launch, the EU has published its latest EU-Asean trade and investment statistics which confirm that the EU is Asean’s second most important trading partner after China, accounting for 13% of Asean’s trade in goods, it said.

Between 2004 and 2014, Asean-EU trade grew at an annual compound rate of 4.7% with the trade balance very much in Asean’s favour, with the EU importing more from the region than it exports to it. 

“Singapore is the EU’s most important trading partner in Asean, accounting for 25.1% of Asean-EU trade in goods, followed by Malaysia (18.8%), Thailand (17.3%) and Vietnam (15.8%),” it said.

The statistics also show that the EU was Asean’s largest investor with 156 billion in FDI stocks in 2013, accounting for 22% of investment flows into Asean, followed by Japan on 18.7%.

Singapore accounted for 60% of the EU’s FDI stock, followed by Indonesia (15%) and Malaysia (11%).

EU Ambassador to Singapore Dr Michael Pulch said: “The EU has a huge stake in the continued success of Singapore, and Asean and is committed to a vibrant and dynamic region, where enhanced trade, investment and business links create new opportunities for economic growth.

“The market access paper by the EU-Asean Business Council addresses a number of important issues including on regulatory frameworks, transparency and non-discrimination between economic operators, to further promote our impressive trade and investment links”.

Meanwhile, EU-Asean Business Council executive director Chris Humphrey said the trade and investment statistics showed the importance of the commercial relationship between two dynamic regions. 

“The paper comes at an important time as Asean prepares to launch the AEC later this year. 

“The policy positions outlined in this paper are intended to help shape the post-2015 agenda, and will be discussed further when the European and ASEAN business community participate in a dialogue session with economic ministers from across Asean at the Asean-EU Business Summit in August,” he said. - Bernama