Asean to give priority to efforts to reduce and remove non-tariff barriers

Moving forward: Asean is taking steps towards creating an Asean Court of Human Rights, reckons Bon, Malaysia’s new representative to the Asean Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights. — Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR: Asean needs to accelerate its pace of work to fully implement trade facilitation in particular and give priority to efforts to reduce and eliminate non-tariff barriers (NTBs).

Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, who is on a working trip to Laos, said with tariffs on substantially all products currently at zero within the region, the Asean Economic Ministers (AEM) are now giving high priority to NTBs.