[Australian PM Julia] Gillard talks trade in Cambodia

                                Australian PM Julia Gillard landed at Phnom Penh Airport.

 

November 19, 2012

By Paul Osborne, AAP Senior Political Writer AAP

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is aiming for an ambitious trade agreement that not only covers ASEAN and its neighbours but leaves the door open for other entrants.

Ms Gillard arrived in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh on Monday for the East Asia Summit, which is set to launch the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on Tuesday afternoon (Cambodian time).

The RCEP agreement - which would bring down trade barriers and cut customs duties across the region - is set to involve the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

"Australia will be supporting a regional comprehensive economic partnership that is comprehensive, covering trade in goods and services as well as investment, which is ambitious and which has a door open to new entrants to join should they choose to do so," Ms Gillard told reporters in Phnom Penh.

Officials say it is possible the agreement, covering around $17 trillion in gross domestic product and three billion people, could be in place as early as 2015, with talks on protocols to start early next year.

Ms Gillard didn't want to commit to a particular deadline but said it needed to be done as "expeditiously" as possible.

The existing Australia-New Zealand-ASEAN free trade agreement is being used as a model for the new deal.

US President Barack Obama, who has been on a tour of Southeast Asia over the past three days, will sit down with Ms Gillard and other proponents of another trade deal - the Trans-Pacific Partnership - in Phnom Penh on Tuesday.

Ms Gillard praised Mr Obama for focusing on Asia so early in his second term as president.

The US and Russia, who have observer status at the EAS, are not involved in the RCEP.

ASEAN nations are expected to average an annual rate of 5.5 per cent growth over the 2013/17 period, the OECD said in a report released in Phnom Penh on Sunday.

Ms Gillard is due to meet Japan's PM Yoshihiko Noda and the Sultan of Brunei on Monday night before a gala dinner hosted by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The leaders will gather on Tuesday at the Peace Palace for a day of talks.

Finance, energy, education, health and disaster response will be discussed alongside human rights and the disputed territories in the South China Sea, in what one official said was certain to be a "free-ranging forum".

Security is tight in the city, with police breaking up several human rights protests in recent days, shanty homes near the airport cleared and beggars being shunted from prominent tourist attractions.

The ASEAN countries are Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos.