EU, ASEAN Ministers Agree to Consider Trade Talks Reboot

The EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are preparing to examine the prospect of re-launching talks for a region-to-region trade accord, nearly eight years after the original plans for such a project were put on hold. Negotiations between the two regions for a trade deal originally began in 2007 but were halted in 2009, with the EU and some individual ASEAN countries instead pursuing bilateral deals in the years since. “This is a significant and timely initiative, and it shows that the EU and ASEAN are committed to take the lead together on regional and global trade. The EU remains strongly committed to advancing a positive global trade agenda in which all sides are winners,” said EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström in a press statement . The announcement came following a meeting between ASEAN economic ministers and the EU trade chief on 10 March in Manila, Philippines. Since the original region-to-region talks were paused, the EU has concluded individual agreements with Singapore in October 2014 and Vietnam in December 2015. The former is awaiting a legal ruling to clarify aspects of the ratification process, while the latter is also pending domestic ratification and other steps. (See Bridges...