At the Singapore Summit of January 1992, the focus was on moving ASEAN into a higher gear in the areas of economic and political cooperation. This culminated in the signing of the Framework Agreement on Enhancing ASEAN Economic Cooperation. With the world opening up further following the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and with globalisation and the liberalisation of world trade gathering pace, the Framework set out to enhance ASEAN's ability to stay abreast of these changes on the world scene. The Framework reiterated ASEAN's commitment to the principles of the GATT and recognised that both tariff and non-tariff barriers were impediments to intra-ASEAN trade and investment flows.

The Framework committed all member states to the implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) within 15 years, using the mechanisms of the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Scheme or the Preferential Trading Arrangements (PTA) for those products not covered in the CEPT Scheme, with the aim of reducing tariff barriers. The reduction or elimination of non-tariff barriers was also agreed on. This was a major step forward, and also a crucial one if ASEAN was to maintain its momentum on the economic front.

Agreement on the CEPT Scheme for AFTA
(Singapore 1992)

Following the Singapore Summit Declaration of 1992 stressing the need for higher levels of economic cooperation, the ASEAN economic ministers signed the Agreement on the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Scheme for AFTA.

The decision to create a free trade area was regarded as a quantum leap in the history of ASEAN economic cooperation. The original CEPT Agreement covered manufacturing products including capital goods and processed agricultural products. This was later expanded to include unprocessed agricultural products. Two years after its initial implementation, ASEAN decided to accelerate the time frame of AFTA from 15 to only 10 years. This would mean the reduction of import and export tariffs on manufacturing and non-manufacturing products to 0%-5% by the year 2003.

Framework Agreement on Services
(Bangkok, 1995)

The ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services was signed in December 1995 at the 5th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok by the ASEAN ministers of trade and industry. Recognising the important benefits that liberalisation could bring, they agreed to improve their level of cooperation in the services sector and set in motion a process of preferential liberalisation of trade in services within ASEAN. The negotiations that followed were aimed at increasing market access and national treatment to ASEAN companies that supply services. The seven priority sectors were air transport, business services, construction, financial services, maritime transport, telecommunications and tourism.

In July 1997, each ASEAN country indicated the sector(s) it was widing to open up under this Framework. This initial package contained market access openings in air transport, telecommunications, business services, maritime transport and tourism, an excellent start to the liberalisation of the service sector. The package was signed at the 29th AEM in October 1997 and is being implemented during the course of 1998.

Framework Agreement on Intellectual Property (IP) Cooperation
(Bangkok, 1995)

Intellectual property rights protect the creators of original work from having their work copied by others. With the increasing recognition of the important role of intellectual property rights in increasing trade and the flow of investment among the ASEAN member countries, ASEAN ministers signed a framework agreement to cooperate on intellectual property issues in the region at the 5th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok in 1995.

ASEAN also recognised that the general public needed to be made aware of the importance of intellectual property rights (IPR) if these rights were to be successfully protected. As a result, the promotion of public awareness of the issue was agreed on.

The efforts that ASEAN is making towards achieving effective IPR protection are vital in supporting the objectives of AFTA by assuring the owners and creators of technology that the most recent developments brought into the region will be adequately protected. This, in turn, will encourage foreign investors to introduce state-of-the-art manufacturing technology into the region.

Agreement on Customs
(Phuket, 1997)

ASEAN customs cooperation was strengthened by the signing of the ASEAN Agreement on Customs by the ASEAN finance ministers at their first formal meeting in Phuket, Thailand, in March 1997. The Agreement provides a legal framework for cooperating on customs activities. The framework includes:

• simplifying and harmonising customs valuation systems, tariff nomenclatures and customs procedures;

• ensuring consistency, transparency and fair application of customs laws and regulations, procedures and other administrative guidelines within each member state;

• ensuring efficient administration and timely clearance of goods to facilitate intra-regional trade and investment;

• exploring other appropriate intra-ASEAN cooperation arrangements in the field of customs, particularly in the prevention and repression of smuggling and other kinds of customs fraud.

ASEAN Industrial Cooperation (AICO) Scheme
(Singapore, 1996)

The ASEAN Industrial Cooperation Scheme, also known as the AICO Scheme, which was implemented in November 1996. The AICO Scheme aims to promote joint industrial manufacturing activities between ASEAN-based companies. Under the Scheme, the products of participating companies can enjoy a preferential tariff rate in the range of 0%-5% and, as a result, the immediate application of preferential tariff rates will give these products a head start over non-AICO products.

The AICO Scheme aims to achieve the following:

• increase ASEAN levels of industrial production;

• increase investments from ASEAN and non-ASEAN sources;

• increase intra-ASEAN trade; improve economies of scale in production and scope;

• enhance the technological base;

• help to make ASEAN industries internationally competitive;

• increase private sector participation;

• increase industrial complementation.