Parties to the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA), gathered in Semarang, Indonesia, for the 28^th ASEAN Economic Ministers – Closer Economic Relations (AEM-CER) Consultation, commenced the signing of the 2^nd Protocol to Amend the Agreement Establishing the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (“2^nd Protocol”).

The signing of the 2nd Protocol to Amend the Agreement Establishing the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area. (Photo: asean.org)

Economic ministers from the four ASEAN member states, namely Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, together with their counterparts from Australia and New Zealand, signed the 2^nd Protocol, which upgrades the original AANZFTA Agreement which entered into force on January 1, 2010. The rest of the ASEAN member states will sign the 2^nd Protocol in due course.

The signing of the 2^nd Protocol is a strong demonstration of the Parties’ determination to ensure that the AANZFTA, which is the first region-to-region FTA for both ASEAN and Australia and New Zealand, remains to be the gold standard of ASEAN’s free trade agreements.

This is the second time that the AANZFTA is being amended following the signing of the Agreement Establishing in ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area in February 2009.

Official data showed that two-way trade between ASEAN and Australia rose by 38.7% from 75.6 billion USD from 2020-2021 to 104.8 billion in 2021-2022 while bilateral trade between ASEAN and New Zealand also increased 37.34% from 12.24 billion in 2021 to 16.81 billion USD in 2022. FDI flows from Australia and New Zealand poured into ASEAN reached 19.7 billion USD and 51.48 million USD in 2022, up 4.86% and 1.84%, respectively.

Source: VNA