KUALA LUMPUR: Asean and the European Union (EU) are set to explore the possibilities of resuming negotiations on the Asean-EU free trade agreement (FTA) after the Asean Economic Community (AEC) implementation.
European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom said Asean and EU senior officials would meet towards the year-end to take stock and explore the way forward and report back to the ministers.
“The EU is committed to have a region to region (Asean-EU) FTA but it is important that we get it right,” she told reporters at a briefing after the 13th Asean Economic Minister-EU Trade Commissioner Consultation here yesterday.
The consultation, which was co-chaired by Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, is held in conjunction with the 26th Asean Summit. The last consultation was held in 2013.
Also present is Asean deputy secretary-general for the AEC Dr Lim Hong Hin.
Malmstrom said senior officers would assess the difficulties, challenges and priorities that had been identified in the previous Asean-EU negotiations.
The Asean-EU FTA negotiations were launched in 2007, but following seven rounds of negotiations, they were quietly dropped in March 2009, largely due to the disagreement over political and human right issue in Myanmar.
Malmstrom, who is from Sweden, said if talks were to resume both Asean and EU must have the same level of ambition and understanding of each other difficulties.
On the Malaysia-EU FTA, she said efforts were being taken to revive negotiations.
The Malaysia-EU FTA, first initiated in 2010, had a lofty aspiration of concluding it in 2013, but it fell through when both parties could not reach a common ground on a number of issues.
Malmstrom said officials from both sides would meet in Brussels, Belgium next month to hammer out of differences. — Bernama