EU, ASEAN Ministers Call for Greater Efforts to Advance Trade Talks

Officials from the EU and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) pledged on Friday 2 March to speed up their efforts to negotiate free trade agreements, both at the bilateral level and eventually at the region-to-region level, following a meeting in Singapore. Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang Lim, who holds ASEAN’s chair in 2018, welcomed the discussions, saying that “the time is right” for both blocs to pursue broader and deeper economic integration. “I look forward to constructive engagement over the course of our consultations today on ways that can help us deepen our region-to-region economic integration,” the Singaporean official said. Lim added that he looks forward “to help pave the way towards the eventual resumption of negotiations for an ASEAN-EU FTA,” referring to a process that kicked off in 2007 and has been on hold for the past nine years. A joint media statement from both sides says that ministers are asking senior officials to continue work at setting up a “framework” which would set the stage for doing so. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, who co-chaired the Singapore consultations together with Lim, described the ASEAN coalition as a “natural partner” and a...