Manila, Aug 06: US President George Bush is to step up Washington's initiative to forge bilateral free trade agreements during his visit to Southeast Asia in October, officials said today. Bush is expected to launch negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Washington and Thailand when he attends a Bangkok summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum on October 20-21, an official of the US-Asean Business Council said.
This will spur talks for separate agreements with other association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) member states, council president Ernest Bower told reporters at the annual Asean Finance Ministers meeting here. Washington sees its FTA with Singapore, the only one signed with an Asean member so far, as a stepping stone to a potential 500 million consumers in Southeast Asia.
"A US-Thailand FTA has a good possibility of being launched in October when President Bush visits Bangkok," said Bower, who is to meet with the finance ministers to push the FTA agenda.
"Indications are that Thailand is ready and with the US-Singapore cornerstone already laid and the US-Thailand FTA coming up after that, and hopefully Malaysia, those will highlight the benefits of FTAs politically to the region as well as in the US," he said. Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz "has already decided to move forward" with initial negotiations for a US-Malaysia FTA while the Philippines and Indonesia could also consider coming aboard after their presidential elections in 2004, Bower explained. Bureau Report