The European Union plans to negotiate free trade agreements with Asean, South Korea and India and launch new trade talks with China in a bid to expand its commercial ties with the region, a top EU official said Tuesday.
"We are looking at possible free trade arrangements with Asean, the Republic of Korea and India, as well as launching new trade negotiations with China in the context of enhancing our overall partnership agreements with these countries," External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.
Asean is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that groups 10 states, ranging from wealthy Singapore to impoverished Laos and Cambodia. Europe has a "very big stake" in Asia's economic success despite also being a competitor, she said, adding there must be greater engagement between the two regions.
Two-way trade between the EU and East and Southeast Asian nations totalled 552 billion euros (694 billion US dollars) in 2005, already approaching EU's trade with the United States which was at 614 billion euros, she said.
"There is a huge potential to develop further our trade and investment relations, as well as business collaboration to our mutual benefit," she told the Foreign Correspondents Association in Singapore. But she stressed that no bilateral agreement, however ambitious, can be a substitute for a good outcome in the current round of global trade talks, which have been in limbo largely due to disagreements over farm subsidies.
The EU was earlier not keen on negotiating bilateral free trade pacts, but the near-collapse of the Doha Round of World Trade Organisation talks has prompted it to reconsider this position.
Ferrero-Waldner indicated the EU wants the planned free trade accord with Asean to cover taxing the savings of wealthy Europeans deposited in financial centres like Singapore. She confirmed she discussed the issue during a meeting on Tuesday with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.