Priority Areas of Cooperation
In line with the ASEAN commitments under the ATIGA and the AEC Blueprint 2025, the Trade in Goods priorities shall include, among others:
Strengthen ATIGA further through the process of General Review of ATIGA which has started since 2020. The process aims to ensure it retains its high-quality and ambitious nature, as well as ensuring its responsiveness and agility to adapt to the changing business and trade practices and the evolving regional economic architecture, while still entrench ASEAN centrality;
Bring down further the remaining tariff barriers in ASEAN through tariff liberalisation;
Address the trade distortive effects of Non-Tariff Measures to reduce the compliance cost. This priority has been implemented through numerous measures, including through the Guidelines for the Implementation of ASEAN Commitments on Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) on Goods, strengthening the ATIGA’s notification process to enhance transparency and predictability for trade in goods, resolving outstanding NTM cases under Matrix of Actual Cases of NTMs/Trade Barriers, and more
Simplify and strengthen the implementation of the Rules of Origin (ROO). ROO implemented by ASEAN Member States should be simplified, business-friendly and trade-facilitative, to benefit the region’s trade, in particular the participation of MSMEs to encourage them to expand, upgrade, and deepen their linkages within the region.
Accelerate and deepen the implementation of Trade Facilitation measures, including but not limited to managing, monitoring, operationalising and enhancing the utilisation of ASEAN Solutions for Investments, Services and Trade (ASSIST) system; monitoring the progress of updating the AMS’s NTMs database to the National Trade Repository (NTR) and the operationalisation of ASEAN Trade Repository (ATR).
