Despite a recent agreement by ASEAN economic ministers to accelerate AFTA's implementation, threats of delays lurk.
"AFTA forces us to do the right things, " explains Secretary of the Budget Benjamin Diokno.
The grouping needs concrete action toward AFTA, too, to lure back foreign investors which could help kick the recovery into high gear.
In fact, the economy needs AFTA in order to get better, particularly since a unified ASEAN market should gin up exports and investment.
Take the latest grumblings about the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), which aims to liberalize commerce in the 10-nation grouping in the next 20 years.
Top of the list has been Malaysia, which was originally due to bring its car industry, which makes the Proton, under AFTA's coverage next year.
That's because the national car plan is largely meant to boost Indonesia's auto industry in time to meet the 2003 deadline set by AFTA for free trade among ASEAN states.
And to this end, both our countries will work on regional trade and investment rules-making, with a view to building AFTA or the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific.
At the heart of the package is an acceleration of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) scheme, the centerpiece of the group's effort to increase cooperation in the face of economic globalization.
Burma's prime concern is the preparation for entry into the ASEAN Free Trade Area (Afta) and ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), as well as wanting to take its turn as ASEAN's chair in 2014.
" With no word from Buenos Aires that it plans to reconsider its decisions, it seems as if, as AFTA noted in a Wall Street Journal ad, "America's teachers have learned a harsh lesson in international economics -- thanks to Argentina's unprecedented debt default.
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