Matters of mutual concern were discussed in an Aide Memoire on Economic Issues and the ASEAN Memorandum to the Tokyo Economic Summit were presented to President Reagan. The ASEAN Foreign Ministers also held bilateral meetings with the U.S. Secretary of State to exchange views on bilateral, regional and international issues.
Trade matters received greater attention during the year under review. This was reflected at the Seventh ASEAN - U.S. Dialogue in Singapore in May 1986 and by the First Consultative Meeting of Senior Trade Officials of both sides in Manila in November 1985.
ASEAN expressed concern over the proliferation of trade legislation pending in the U.S. Congress which are projectionist in nature, and if passed, would adversely affect the interests of ASEAN countries. Nonetheless, ASEAN was delighted by the firm stand of President Reagan's administration against the protectionist bills.
On the U.S.'GSP Scheme, ASEA reiterated its request for Competitive Need Limit (CNL) waivers for a number of products. On the Multi- Fibre Arrangements (MFA), ASEAN sought U.S. support for a stable growth in any move to introduce new restrictive elements in textile exports from the developing countries and avoid any move to introduce new restrictive elements in the extended MFA. On the New Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (NRMTN), ASEAN sought U.S. support to ensure that issues of interest to ASEAN would adequately dealt with in the New Round.
On the commodity issues, ASEAN and the U.S. recognised the importance of commodity export earnings to their economies and stressed the need for the full application of GATT disciplines to trade in agriculture to reduce distortions and to allow trade in agriculture to better reflect comparative advantage and free interplay of market forces. Both sides expressed the hope that the decisions on agriculture at the Tokyo Economic Summit would lead to efforts to free agriculture markets from the harmful effects of subsidies and trade restrictions.
On investment, ASEAN noted the decline in the flow of U.S. investments to the region in the recent years. The U.S. agreed on the importance of private sector investment!, to the economic development of the ASEAN countries, and would facilitate direct U.S. investment in ASEAN.
Significant progress was made in the ASEAN - U.S. Development Cooperation Programme. U.S. assistance increased from US$ 105,000 in 1979 to a total of US$ 33.8 million. The programme has been valuable in meeting ASEAN's basic development needs particularly in the areas of agriculture and natural resources. ASEAN and the U.S. have Identified the scope for further expansion of the programme and agreed on a number of new project proposals in the fields of industry, trade, finance and banking, narcotics, energy, science and technology, social, cultural and media, and research studies. The U.S. has agreed to extend six of the existing projects, and in-principle approval was given to 14 proposed projects on the above areas.
Cooperation in human resources has been given added impetus. The U.S. announced its plans to institute a human resources development programme amounting to US$ 18 million over the next few years, under which several new project proposals would be implemented.
A memorandum of Understanding on the ASEAN Living Coastal Resources Management Project amounting to US$ 5 million to be financed by the USAID was signed during the Seventh ASEAN - U.S. Dialogue in Singapore in May 1985. ASEAN and the U.S. recognised the initiatives of the ASEAN U.S. Business Council and the ASEAN Centre for Technology Exchange to promote closer cooperation between the private sectors, and training activities involving access to U. S. markets, trade promotion and insurance seminars, and to establish closer contacts with the respective government agencies to implement co- operative projects.
ASEAN and the U.S. agreed to strengthen the existing dialogue machinery including the role of the ASEAN - Washington Committee (AWC), the Contact Group between the AWC and the various U.S. government agencies and its Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) in Washington and the Liaison Meeting in Singapore. They viewed the dialogue as an on-going process in which issues of mutual interest and proposals for development cooperation could be taken up in-between the dialogue meetings.