ASEAN TO SIGN FTA WITH AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND BY DECEMBER

SINGAPORE, Aug 29 (Bernama) -- The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Asean-Australia and New Zealand will be signed by December this year as negotiations for the FTA were concluded at the Asean Economic Ministers meeting here Thursday.

A joint AEM statement issued following the meeting, said the
Asean-Australia-New Zealand FTA had a good model with high investment prospects in the sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation and logistics.

Malaysia's Minister of International Trade and Industry Muhyiddin Yassin
said the spirit of teamwork was apparent during the FTA negotiation process at
the meeting Thursday.

The Asean-Australia-NZ FTA will encompass the trading of goods,
investments,
commercial services, financial services, telecommunications, electronic trade,
movement of natural persons, intellectual property, competition policy, and
economic cooperation.

Under the agreement, tariff abolishment will cover from 93 to 96 percent of
tariff lines in the main Asean market.

"In New Zealand, the business opportunities in the agriculture sector is
big
especially in the processing of food and value addition," Muhyiddin told
Malaysian journalists here at the AEM gathering.

There was active participation from the Asean Dialogue Partners at the
meeting Thursday as well, he said, adding that a lot were agreed upon and much
was achieved.

On another note, Muhyiddin said the participation of the private sector was
very important as their involvement right now was limited.

Collaboration in the area of research is also important like what Japan has
done, contributing to the research sector the establishment of a research
institute for East Asia.