Protectionism weighs on Asean integration, Philippines warns
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Bandar Seri Begawan - Protectionism, especially in agriculture and services, is putting a brake on the march towards a common market by the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean), a senior Philippine official said Thursday.
Although the 10-country bloc has implemented 73 to 76 per cent of the blueprint of the Asean Economic Community, some countries with large agricultural sectors have set up "a lot of barriers," Philippine Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo told reporters.
"There is also a lot of barriers in services, (such as) in insurance, banking, telecommunications," he said, speaking on the sidelines of the first day of the Asean summit in Brunei.
Domingo said there was still a general will to resolve the problems before the 2015 deadline for implementing the bloc's economic community, agreed in 2007 with free flow of goods, services and capital.//DPA
