Agreement on Australia-New Zealand FTA Enters into Force
ASEAN Secretariat, 12 January 2010
Hot on the heels of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (FTA), now comes the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA (AANZFTA). Described as the single most comprehensive economic agreement among its Dialogue Partners, the AANZFTA entered into force on 1 January 2010. The Agreement on the Establishment of the AANZFTA was initially signed in Thailand in February 2009.
Eight of the 12 Parties – Australia, Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Viet Nam – are now implementing the Agreement and the commitments they have made therein.
“This is indeed a significant development particularly in our efforts to slowly integrate the markets in this region,” said Dr Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN. “What makes this particular development more meaningful is the fact that the AANZFTA is being implemented amidst such economically challenging times,” Dr Surin added.
The AANZFTA Agreement hopes to create a trans-Pacific free trade zone comprising a market of 600 million people with a combined GDP of US$ 2.7 trillion. It is expected to substantially reduce barriers to trade in goods and services, thereby, opening up a wide range of opportunities for trade and investment in the region not only for the Parties but non-Parties as well.
Dr Surin encouraged the rest of the Parties to the Agreement to endeavour to be on board to enable them to reap the benefits from the Agreement as early as possible.
Under the AANZFTA, tariff reductions started gradually on 1 January 2010 with free trade to be fully realised by 2015. The newer ASEAN Member States – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Viet Nam – have longer time frames.
The Agreement with Australia-New Zealand is unique in that the goods, services and investment components were negotiated in a single undertaking as compared to FTAs with other ASEAN Dialogue Partners where they are negotiated sequentially.
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