ASEAN can intention for 100% tariff-free commerce to spice up integration efforts, says PM Wong | USAEMALL.com

KUALA LUMPUR: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should go further in its integration efforts, including aiming to be “100 per cent tariff-free” within its free trade area, said Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Monday (May 26).

The 10-member regional bloc should also deepen collaboration with external partners, both existing and new, amid an increasingly challenging global environment, Mr Wong said on the first day of the 46th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

Southeast Asian leaders have gathered in the Malaysian capital for the first of two ASEAN summits chaired by Malaysia this year.

The meeting is taking place against the backdrop of heightened geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties, with the impact of United States President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz on the trade-dependent region high on the agenda.

Speaking at the leaders’ retreat session, Mr Wong said the US tariffs marked “a retreat from multilateralism and a move towards more transactional and bilateral deals, where unfortunately often it becomes might being right”.

“In such an environment, it would be more difficult and challenging for countries everywhere.”

Mr Wong noted that ASEAN can do three things to respond to this new environment.

One is to continue to “constructively engage the US, individually as countries but more importantly, collectively as ASEAN”. Another is to strengthen its integration efforts.

“For example, we said that the ASEAN free trade area is virtually tariff-free, which is very good. But why can’t we be 100 per cent tariff-free?”

First established in 1992 and encompassing three agreements, including the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), the ASEAN free trade area aims to reduce trade barriers and create a single market within the regional bloc.

ATIGA, for one, has eliminated tariffs on 98.6 per cent of products traded within ASEAN.

Ahead of the summit in Kuala Lumpur, ASEAN economic ministers concluded negotiations to upgrade the ATIGA, which they said will create an improved regional ecosystem for the flow of goods within the region.