Asean Leaders Call for Freer Trade

02.03.2009 

HUA HIN, Thailand – Leaders of Southeast Asia's struggling economies met on Sunday to urge major trading partners such as the U.S. and the European Union to continue opening up trade, even as many of the countries in the region grapple with protectionist legacies back home and rising pressure to repudiate free trade as the global economic slowdown worsens. The ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations signed a free-trade agreement with Australia and New Zealand during its annual summit to add some meat to its pitch, which it intends to take to the coming Group of 20 nations summit in London this April. That trade pact with Australia and New Zealand, scheduled to take effect in December this year, is projected to expand trade among the 12 countries by $48 billion by 2020. But Asean leaders say they are anxious for more.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who hosted the summit, on Saturday, urged Asean to take the lead in resisting any temptation to adopt protectionist policies among its major trading partners. "If we start going down the route of protectionism, everybody will go down. It doesn't help anybody at the end," he said. Several Asean members – notably Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore – are heavily dependent on exports to fuel their economies. Since the onset of the global financial crisis, which was triggered by an escalation of toxic assets held by banks in the U.S., they have seen their economies contract or sharply slow as the economic situation in the U.S. and other major nations deteriorates. Malaysia's gross domestic product expanded by a meager 0.1% in the fourth quarter compared with the year-earlier period while Thailand's economy shrank 4.3% in the same period. Singapore has warned that its economy could contract by over 5% this year. Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said in an interview on the sidelines of the summit that the world's biggest trading powers need to re-engage in the stalled Doha round of free trade talks at the World Trade Organization "as soon as possible" to help offset a deeper global downturn. Ms. Pangestu noted that none of Asean's member nations had adopted tougher trade barriers in response to the onset of the global crisis last fall.
But some countries in Asean – a region of 570 million people in countries as diverse as the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines and Communist-run Vietnam, and with a combined economic output of $1.2 trillion a year – are turning to other, non-tariff measures to aid their local businesses, sometimes at the expense of foreign competitors. Malaysia, for instance, offers companies based there financial incentives to lay off foreign workers instead of Malaysians and uses high excise taxes to protect its domestic automobile industry. Indonesia requires that local companies be given preferential treatment for government procurement contracts. People familiar with the Asean leaders' discussions also said some delegates at the summit were concerned about how Asean's long-term goal of dropping all internal trade barriers by 2015 could affect local industries as they try to recover from the global economic meltdown.

"It could be too much for some of them," said one official, who asked not to be identified. Other officials said some delegates raised doubts about the merits of the so-called Washington Consensus – an economic philosophy based on the power of free markets and free trade often prescribed by donors such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank during previous financial crises. Mr. Abhisit, however, told a news conference on Sunday that ASEAN remains "firmly committed" to free trade. "We will do whatever we can to make sure that no [member] countries resort to protectionist measures to try to ease their way out of the crisis," he said. The regional trade group, which originated in 1967 as bulwark against the spread of Communism and which has since expanded to embrace the Communist states of Vietnam and Laos, is struggling to present a united political front.

This summit is the first since Asean adopted a charter in December which calls for its members to adhere to a code of basic freedoms and human rights. The group has faced increasing criticism from the U.S. and other major trading partners for failing to take action against human rights abuses, especially in military-run Myanmar, and the new code was designed to create a new, "caring and sharing" Asean, in the words of Thai leader Mr. Abhisit. The trade bloc also commissioned a new regional anthem and has adopted cartoon characters representing each nation that make friends with a visiting extra-terrestrial named Blue in a new comic. But on Saturday, the leaders of Myanmar and Cambodia threatened to walk out from a meeting of regional human rights advocates if activists from their countries were included. The activists from Myanmar and Cambodia withdrew to allow the meeting to go ahead.

 

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Blake exits in 2nd round

22.08.2008 

James Blake's frustration rose to a crescendo Thursday. The top U.S. man in the French Open was talking to himself, and the words were growing louder. He was bothered by the clay underfoot. By the chair umpire. By his own play. And, most of all, by the drop shots and assorted other winners his up-and-coming foe produced. For the fifth time in six career trips to Roland Garros, Blake departed before the third round, losing this time to 80th-ranked Ernests Gulbis of Latvia