US downplays trade deal with ASEAN

SINGAPORE(AFP) - The United States is not ruling out a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Southeast Asia but it is too early to discuss the issue, Trade Representative Susan Schwab said in remarks published Monday.

In an interview with The Straits Times in Singapore, Schwab said Washington was focused on using the Trade and Investment Framework Arrangement (TIFA) inked with ASEAN last year as a base to boost further cooperation.

"In the past, we had used the TIFA format as a building block to a free-trade agreement," Schwab told the newspaper.

"At some point, we could build towards an ASEAN-wide FTA. I don't think any of us has ruled that out, but at this stage of the game, it is premature talking about it," she said.

The US inked the TIFA in August 2006 with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a deal seen as a precursor to a full free-trade agreement.

Under the TIFA, the United States and ASEAN will establish a formal ministerial dialogue aimed at expanding trade and investment.

"We are working with our ASEAN partners to build on that TIFA," Schwab said. "The idea is for TIFA to help further economic integration among ASEAN members, not just between ASEAN and the United States."

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.