The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)
The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) has now been virtually established. ASEAN Member Countries have made significant progress in the lowering of intra-regional tariffs through the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Scheme for AFTA. More than 99 percent of the products in the CEPT Inclusion List (IL) of ASEAN-6, comprising Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, have been brought down to the 0-5 percent tariff range. [Figure 1]
ASEAN’s newer members, namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Viet Nam, are not far behind in the implementation of their CEPT commitments with almost 80 percent of their products having been moved into their respective CEPT ILS. Of these items, about 66 percent already have tariffs within the 0-5 percent tariff band. Viet Nam has until 2006 to bring down tariff of products in the Inclusion List to no more than 5 percent duties, Laos and Myanmar in 2008 and Cambodia in 2010.
Following the signing of the Protocol to Amend the CEPT-AFTA Agreement for the Elimination of Import Duties on 30 January 2003, ASEAN-6 has committed to eliminate tariffs on 60 percent of their products in the IL by the year 2003. As of this date, tariffs on 64.12 percent of the products in the IL of ASEAN-6 have been eliminated. The average tariff for ASEAN-6 under the CEPT Scheme is now down to 1.51 percent from 12.76 percent when the tariff cutting exercise started in 1993.
The implementation of the CEPT-AFTA Scheme was significantly boosted in January 2004 when Malaysia announced its tariff reduction for completely built up (CBUs) and completely knocked down (CKDs) automotive units to gradually meet its CEPT commitment one year earlier than schedule. Malaysia has previously been allowed to defer the transfer of 218 tariff lines of CBUs and CKDs until 1 January 2005.
Products that remain out of the CEPT-AFTA Scheme are those in the Highly Sensitive List (i.e. rice) and the General Exception List. The Coordinating Committee on the Implementation of the CEPTScheme for AFTA (CCCA) is currently undertaking a review of all the General Exception Lists to ensure that only those consistent with Article 9(b)1 of the CEPT Agreement are included in the lists.