European Commission Directorate-General for Trade

ASEAN

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established on 8 August 1967 by the five founding member countries of Indonesia, Malaysia,Philippines,Singapore and Thailand.

Today, ASEAN encompasses 10 South East Asian countries with the addition of: Brunei Darussalam (1984), Vietnam (1995), Laos (1997), Burma/Myanmar (1997) and Cambodia (1999).

• More information on the political relations between the EU and ASEAN

The population of the ASEAN countries comprises close to 600 million people. ASEAN collectively generates a GDP of some 1 500 billion USD.

In 2003 ASEAN decided to set up a Community made up of three pillars: the ASEAN Security Community, ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community.

The ASEAN Economic Community's Blueprint (2006) sets out an ambitious schedule for achieving an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. To date, important steps have been taken towards that goal. In particular, tariffs on intra-ASEAN trade are being progressively eliminated or reduced.

ASEAN has negotiated a number of free trade agreements, thus giving preferential access to businesses from Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. In addition, individual ASEAN members have negotiated a significant number of bilateral free trade agreements with third countries.

The EU's main exports to ASEAN are chemical products, machinery and transport equipment

The EU – ASEAN trade relationship

ASEAN as a whole represents the EU's 3rd largest trading partner outside Europe (after the US and China) with more than €206 billion of trade in goods and services in 2011.

The EU is ASEAN's 2nd largest trading partner after China, accounting for around 11% of ASEAN trade.

The EU is by far the largest investor in ASEAN countries. EU companies have invested around €9.1 billion annually on average (2000-2009). The total stock of mutual investments between the EU and ASEAN exceeds €125 billion.

The EU's main exports to ASEAN are chemical products, machinery and transport equipment;

The main imports from ASEAN to the EU are machinery and transport equipments, agricultural products as well as textiles and clothing.

Data

Trade in goods and services:

• EU-ASEAN trade in goods: €161.7 billion (2011)
• EU-ASEAN trade in goods: €146.7 billion (2010)
• EU-ASEAN trade in commercial services: €44.3 billion (2010)
• EU-ASEAN trade in goods & commercial services: €191 billion. (2010)

FDI to ASEAN:

• EU FDI outflows to ASEAN: €21.9 billion (2010)
• EU FDI outward stocks with ASEAN: € 192.7 billion (2010)

FDI from ASEAN:

• EU FDI inflows from ASEAN: €9.1 billion (2010)
• EU FDI inward stocks from ASEAN: € 67.9 billion (2010)

Free trade negotiations with ASEAN countries

The EU has increased its economic ties with South East Asia by opening negotiations for free trade agreements with Singapore and Malaysia in 2010. The EU's door remains open to start negotiations with other partners in the region on comprehensive free trade agreements. At the same time, the EU has not lost sight of its ultimate goal of achieving an agreement within the regional framework.

EU - ASEAN co-operation on Trade

This co-operation is ensured mainly through an EU-ASEAN Dialogue which includes discussions on trade and investment issues at ministerial (EC-AEM Consultations) and senior economic officials (SEOM) levels.

At a more technical level, the EU and the ASEAN Secretariat conduct seminars on topics such as regional economic integration, liberalisation of services, technical barriers to trade and trade facilitation.

The EU also finances other regional projects relating to Trade such as:

• ASEAN FTA Negotiating Capacity
• ASEAN Regional Integration Support (ARISE)
• EU-ASEAN Statistical Capacity Building Programme (EASCAB)
• ASEAN Project on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (ECAP III)