Malaysian exports under China-ASEAN FTA rise

Malaysian exports under the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which came into full implementation on Jan. 1, 2010, have been on the rise over the past few years.


Tay Lee Looi, senior director of the FTA Policy and Negotiations Coordination Department of Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Ministry, made the remarks in Kuala Lumpur during an interview with Xinhua on Thursday.


According to Tay, Malaysia's free on board (FOB) exports totaled 5.6 billion ringgit (1.84 billion U.S. dollars) under the FTA in 2007, but the amount increased to 14.25 billion ringgit (4. 67 billion U.S. dollars) in 2010.


The FOB exports in 2008 and 2009 amounted to 6.33 billion ringgit (2.08 billion U.S. dollars) and 8.38 billion ringgit (2.75 billion U.S. dollars) respectively.


In January 2011, the FOB exports hit 1.39 billion ringgit (455. 73 million U.S. dollars), a surge of 39 percent from one billion ringgit (327.87 million U.S. dollars) from a year ago.


Tay said that the Malaysian government had made thorough considerations before accepting a free trade arrangement with China through CAFTA, adding that the agreement would do more good for the nation and the business community.


The CAFTA was signed in November 2004 and entered into force in July 2005.


Prior to the CAFTA, an early Harvest Program was implemented from 2004 for agricultural and selected manufactured products. Import duties for the products in the program were eliminated on Jan. 2006.


The CAFTA was realized in 2010 for China and ASEAN-6 (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) and 2015 for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.


The Malaysian government has been committed to implementing the open trade policy, while acknowledging the fact that tariff barriers no longer provide protection as market opening has been an ongoing process.


To date, Malaysia has concluded and is implementing nine bilateral and regional FTAs. They are the ASEAN FTA, ASEAN FTAs with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.


While Malaysia's bilateral FTAs with Japan, Pakistan and New Zealand have been implemented, the ones with Chile and India will follow soon.


To facilitate businesses, Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed announced on Thursday the abolishment of import and export licensing requirements on 335 products (covering 57 import products and 278 export products).


"Among the products are slags, dross, scalings and similar waste, of iron, steel and zinc, roofing tiles, activated clay and activating bleaching earth," said the minister.
(Source:http://news.xinhuanet.com)