7 documents to be signed during 12th Asean Summit

At least seven documents are to be signed during the 12th ASEAN Summit to be held in Cebu from Dec. 10 to 14, Bureau of International Trade Relations (BITR) Director Ramon Vicente Kabigting said.

In a pre-summit briefing, Kabigting said four of the documents involve intra-ASEAN matters, while three concern ASEAN-China relations.

Apart from the seven agreements to be signed, Kabigting said a declaration crafted by the ASEAN Economic Ministers is expected to be submitted to the ASEAN leaders. The declaration involves the acceleration of ASEAN Community from the original target of 2020 to 2015.

The seven documents to be signed are:

1. ASEAN Framework (Amendment) Agreement for the Integration of Priority Sectors.

2.ASEAN Sectoral Integration (Amend-ment) Protocol for the Integration of Priority Sectors.

3. Protocol to Implement the 5th Package of Commitments under the ASEAN Frame-work Agreement on Services (AFAS).

4. ASEAN MRA on Nursing Services

5. The Agreement on Trade in Services of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and the People’s Republic of China.

6. Second Protocol to Amend the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and the People’s Republic of China.

7. Protocol to Amend the Trade in Goods of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and the People’s Republic of China.

According to Kabigting, the ASEAN MRA on Nursing Services would have a significant impact on Filipino nurses as it would facilitate mobility of nursing professionals within ASEAN, exchange information and expertise on standards and qualifications, promote adoption of best practices and provide opportunities for capacity building and training.

Kabigting said, Filipino nurses will now have the opportunity to establish themselves as a "brand" being globally well-known to be more caring and solicitous.

The Protocol on AFAS, will endow to the Philippines’ ASEAN partners the same trade benefits it is granting to its bilateral partners such as that extended to Japan under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement.

The Cebu Declaration essentially, Kabigting said, would formalize the agreement of all ASEAN member nations to accelerate the creation of the ASEAN Community.

The ASEAN Economic Community is one of the three pillars in the ASEAN Vision 2020, which was declared during the ASEAN Leaders Summit in 2003, to implement a truly single economy. The other two pillars are ASEAN Security Community and ASEAN Social and Cultural Community.

The Cebu Declaration by the ASEAN Leaders would also solidify a shift in the operation of the grouping from consensus to a more rules-based organization just like the European Community.

It had been repeatedly pointed out that working through a consensus makes it difficult to move faster to attain a vision. Thus, a rules-based charter is seen as a plausible idea.

The other important topic to be discussed by the ASEAN economic ministers would be the progress of the Priority Integration Program, which identifies 11 sectors as the catalyst for the economic integration of the region, Kabigting said.

During the 2004 ASEAN Summit in Laos, members agreed to implement the ASEAN Sectoral Integration Protocols, which legally bind them to undertake accelerated integration measures in 11 priority sectors.

Of the 11 priority sectors, seven are product sectors, which account for 54 percent of all intra-ASEAN trade, and four are services.

The remaining 10 priority sectors include electronics, E-ASEAN (electronic commerce/usage/connectivity among ASEAN countries), health care, wood-based products, automotives, rubber-based products, textiles and apparel, agri-based products, fisheries, air travel, and tourism.

As country coordinator, the Philippines spearheaded the formulation of the Electronics Road Map and committed to fast-track tariff elimination of more than 1,000 electronics and ICT products.

Under the ASEAN Sectoral Agreement for Electronics, wherein the Philippines is the country coordinator, tariffs for electronics products must be eliminated by 2007 for the ASEAN 6 and by the year 2012 for the CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam).

Already, the Philippines has gone ahead reducing to zero tariffs on all electronics items by 2007 including downstream electronics products such as home appliances.