2010 A Major Milestone For Many FTAs, Says Mukhriz

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 (Bernama) -- This year marks a significant milestone for many with the implementation of the Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and hope that Malaysian exporters take full advantage of the development, says Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Muhkriz Tun Dr Mahathir.

He said Malaysia has been a major beneficiary of trade liberalisation through the World Trade Organization (WTO), Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA) and bilateral arrangements.

In 2008, Malaysia's total trade was 160.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Mukhriz said while 2009 was expected to record lower exports, there had been however some improvement in export performance in the last few months.

"To further improve exports despite the challenging external conditions, Malaysian exporters are encouraged to fully utilise the numerous FTAs the government has signed," he urged.

These would include regional FTAs such as ASEAN-China, ASEAN-Korea, ASEAN-Japan, which have already been enforced, and ASEAN-India and ASEAN-Australia/New Zealand, which came into force in January this year, he said.

Malaysia has also concluded bilateral FTAs with Japan, Pakistan and New Zealand.

He said many Malaysian exporters were already seeing the benefits of the FTAs with Japan and Pakistan.

The agreement with New Zealand will come into force this year while negotiations are actively underway to conclude bilateral agreements with India, Chile and Australia, he said.

These FTAs not only open up new market opportunities for Malaysian products, but also allow the products to be priced competitively due to preferential duty treatment offered by the trading partners.

Together, the concluded FTAs cover more than 60 per cent of Malaysia's global trade and provide an eventual duty free market of more than 3.2 billion people.

Citing AFTA, he said the arrangement offered duty free treatment for almost all products.

"China and the six earlier members of ASEAN will accord each other duty free treatment on 90 per cent of the products".

"The number of certificates of origin (COO) issued by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to our exporters under the preferential schemes of the FTAs have increased by 13.0 per cent to 222,476 in 2008 from 196,856 in 2007.

"During the first half of 2009, while total exports to FTA partners' markets have decreased compared with the corresponding period in 2008, there has been an increase in the share of exports utilising the preferential schemes under the FTAs," said Mukhriz.

From January to June 2009, exports using preferential rates under AFTA amounted to RM10.61 billion compared with RM8.21 billion in the corresponding period of 2008.

Mukhriz also said that MITI would intensify its outreach programmes to Malaysian companies to create higher awareness of the plentiful opportunities presented by these FTAs.

Discussions and joint-programmes with the various business and trade bodies are being held to assist Malaysian exporters to remain competitive in the midst of challenging foreign market environment, he added.