The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has reached tentative free trade agreements with three major trading partners - India, Australia, and New Zealand - after years of negotiations. Though the full terms the agreements reached Thursday in Singapore during a meeting of ASEAN ministers would not be made public until the signing in December, they cover more than 400 goods with India and goods, investment, services and intellectual property with Australia and New Zealand, the dpa reported. "This is the most comprehensive free trade agreement that ASEAN has ever entered. It is the largest free trade agreement that Australia has ever negotiated," Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean told reporters in Singapore. The value of goods traded between ASEAN countries and India last year was about 38 billion dollars and with Australia and New Zealand they jumped 17 per cent last year to 48 billion dollars. The ASEAN-India agreement is expected to be extended to include services and investments by next year. "The ministers see the agreement as paving the way to enhancing the region's economic integration and acting as an impetus to deepen and broaden the trade and investment among the twelve participating countries," ASEAN said in a statement. ASEAN officials also said they had made "substantive progress" towards extending their existing trade deal with China to include investments by December. The 10-member South-East Asian bloc of about 550 million people has forged free trade links with all major economies in the region. as well as Japan and South Korea. Beyong Asia, ASEAN Director General Surin Pitsuwan, said "a framework for talks with the Euoprean Union was in place and this is a challenging one to close" and in discussing the US he said "we are preparing the ground work ...looking for areas of commonality," The free trade agreements will be signed in Bangkok during the ASEAN Summit in December.
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