In Khanh Hoa province (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The ASEAN economic ministers held the virtual 25th consultationwith external partners Australia and New Zealandon August 29, within the framework of the 52nd ASEAN EconomicMinisters’ Meeting and related meetings.
The event wasco-chaired by Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh,Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment SimonBirmingham, and Minister of State for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor.
They said two-way trade between ASEAN and Australia roseslightly to 87.8 billion USD last year from 86.8 billion USD in 2018.Meanwhile, that between ASEAN and New Zealand went up 6.6 percent to 12.1 billionUSD in 2019 from 11.4 billion USD in 2018.
Australia’s direct investment in the bloc reached 32.6 billionUSD last year, or 5.5 percent of the country’s total. New Zealand also poured 560million USD in the grouping, accounting for 3.2 percent.
Expressing concern over the impacts of COVID-19, ministers saidthe hardest-hit sectors include transportation, tourism, retail and otherservices, besides disruption of supply chains and financial markets.
They reaffirmed commitment to opening trade and investmentmarkets to reinforce resilience and sustainability of regional supply chains andmaintain the flow of goods and services.
They pledged not to impose new trade limitation measures,including non-tariff ones that hurt the flow of key goods and services in thefight against the pandemic.
Participants agreed to give priority to facilitating economicrecovery following the pandemic, as well as strive to sign the RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership this year, thus expressing support for regionalmultilateral trade system and regional economic integration.
Acknowledging progress in negotiations for the upgrade of theagreement establishing the ASEAN-Australia-NewZealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA), they directed officials to continuestepping up the process in the near future, including removing unnecessary barriersto restore regional business community’s trust.
They highlighted a need to reform the World TradeOrganisation and vowed to join hands during the process to meet expectation ofmember states.
They consented to hold the 12th AANZFTAJoint Committee and the ninth ASEAN – Closer Economic Relations (CER) IntegrationPartnership Forum at the earliest possible time./.
