ASEAN products to enjoy zero tax in Australia, NZ

Over 12,300 products from ASEAN countries will enjoy a zero tax rate while being exported to Australia and New Zealand after a new agreement between ASEAN and the two countries takes effect later this week.

According to the Thai daily “The Nation”, the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Agreement will include steps to implement the roadmap of trade liberalisation through cutting tariffs and standardise regulations on technical criteria, food safety and hygiene and investment cooperation.

Australia will remove taxes on 5,800 products imported from ASEAN member countries while New Zealand will do so on 6,500 commodities from the grouping.

This is ASEAN’s fifth FTA with partner countries, following its agreements with China , Japan , the Republic of Korea and India . In addition, ASEAN is looking to signing FTAs with countries under the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Mercosur Trade Bloc, including four leading Latin American economies namely Argentina , Brazil , Paraguay and Uruguay.

Tags: Asean and Australia cooperation, ASEAN products

Posted by VBN on Mar 8 2010. Filed under Int'l Cooperation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry