The negotiations leading to Vietnam's entry into ASEAN in 1995 were made difficult not by any political conditions but by the arguments over the commitments that Hanoi would have to undertake under the CEPT scheme for AFTA, including the time lag that it insisted upon. Finally, it was agreed that, like the original signatories, Vietnam would have ten years from the effective date of its accession within which to lower its tariffs on imports from other ASEAN countries to 0-5 per cent; that is, until 1 January 2006. The other three new members followed the same pattern: up to 2008 for Laos and Myanmar, which joined ASEAN in 1997, and until 2010 for Cambodia, which was admitted in 1999. When I asked Vietnamese and Cambodian authorities why they insisted on the time lag f integrating into the regional economy would be good for the country, why delay it, I inquired the responses indicated more than concern over the loss of revenue from customs duties; it was the uncertainty over the potential political, as well as economic, impact. In any case, trade ministries were normally more willing to liberalize intra-regional trade than the more-cautious finance ministries.