Asia-Pacific Summit
Trade and Tariff Conflicts
The prospect of free trade is in development in East Asia and the Pacific led by the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). This would level the issue of countries having different tariffs from country to country. Six of the ten ASEAN nations, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, signed an agreement in 1992 called the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). On January 1, these six nations achieved tariff-free trade for 99.1 percent of products. The four remaining ASEAN members, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, will have no tariffs by 2015.
China, Japan, and South Korea are also in association with ACEAN in a cooperation called ASEAN Plus Three. These three countries are also working on free trade with the rest of the region.
Tariffs still stand for some goods that are “highly sensitive.” The Philippines, the world’s largest importer of rice has a 35 per cent tariff on rice. However, they provide Thailand, their biggest rice source, with tariff-free allowance of 360,000 tons a year. This was seen unfair by other nations. The nations of the region must resolve the issue of their tariffs.
Countries, especially Indonesia are worried that free trade with China will run their industry out of business. Indonesia requested to delay and review the free trade agreement with China.
The Nations of this committee must make an agreement that lets money flow freely between these states with little restriction and minding the concerns and interest of all the nations.