Southeast Asian trade ministers late on Friday hastily signed four agreements aimed at speeding up regional economic union after the high-profile summit of Asian leaders this weekend was postponed due to a typhoon.
The ministers also signed two pacts with China, including one that reduces tariffs on an expanded list of goods, but left out an agreement on trade in services. They said the services pact would be signed when their leaders meet next month.
Most of the trade and foreign ministers of Southeast Asia are due to fly out of the central Philippine city of Cebu on Saturday as Typhoon Utor was set to sweep into the region, passing some 200 km (125 miles) north of Cebu.
Southeast Asian countries have stopped short of pushing for a full free market in the region, calling instead for "flexibilities" for exporters and Asean manufacturers in some industries.
Philippine Trade Secretary Peter Favila said the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) recognised the need to speed up the integration of its markets to compete for foreign capital with faster-growing neighbours China and India. But some industries, such as farming, still needed protection.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said in a study on Asean exports that the region needed to create a genuinely, integrated market and lessen its dependence on trade with outside the trading bloc to fuel growth in its manufacturing sector.
The trade ministers of Asean, home to more than 560 million people and with a combined economy bigger than India's, have agreed to eliminate duties on 3,523 tariff lines on January 1, 2007 and simplify customs procedures, Asean said in a statement. They also agreed to eliminate non-tariff barriers within the region in three phases starting 2008, with all such barriers to be dropped by 2010.
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