Jakarta, 19 March - A series of workshops on tariff reduction scheme for the ASEAN Free Trade Area will be launched on 21 March 2001 at Hotel Indonesia in Jakarta. The workshops form part of the efforts to inform the business community of the progress of implementation of AFTA’s Common Preferential Tariff Scheme. ASEAN expects to accomplish the establishment of AFTA on schedule. By January next year, all products in the Inclusion List of the first six signatories to the scheme - Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - will have tariffs of no more than 5 percent.

When AFTA was launched in 1993, the average import tariff of products under the CEPT Scheme was 12.76%. This average tariff on intra-ASEAN trade went down to 3.64% last year for the six initial signatories to the scheme. Last year, 85% of products in the Inclusion List had their tariffs reduced to 0-5%. This year, the percentage would be increased to 90%. Intra-ASEAN exports grew as a result of the tariff reductions by an average of 10.68% per annum during the same period reaching US $ 74.4 billion in 1999.

This workshop in Jakarta is the first of five similar workshops to be held in ASEAN members during March and April 2001. The succeeding workshops will be held in Manila - Philippines on 26 March 2001; Ho Chi Minh - Vietnam on 30 March 2001; Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia on 4 April 2001; and Singapore on 6 April 2001.

Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN, Mr Tran Duc Minh, will give the opening remarks. Dr. Robert R. Teh Jr., Director of the Bureau of Trade, Industry and Services of the ASEAN Secretariat, will present a regional overview of the progress in the implementation of the CEPT Scheme for AFTA. Dr. Budi Darmadi, Director of Regional Cooperation, Ministry of Industry and Trade, will present Indonesia’s CEPT programme touching on the progress made so far and the benefits that have accrued to the Indonesian private sector.

A number of other presentations will be made by Indonesian trade and customs officials providing details on how to utilise the CEPT Scheme, the certification requirements (such as for rules of origin), customs procedures and controls in handling goods under the CEPT Scheme. A representative from the private sector who has benefited from the CEPT Scheme and has considerable experience with it will also present his experiences. The expected participants are executives from Indonesian manufacturing and trading companies as well as Japanese multinational companies operating in Indonesia.

These workshops are sponsored by the Tokyo-based ASEAN Center in cooperation with the ASEAN Secretariat and the National AFTA Units of the host countries. Further information on AFTA can be obtained at the ASEAN Secretariat website at http://www.aseansec.org