In 2002, the ASEAN Economic Ministers agreed to eliminate 80% of tariff lines under CEPT Normal Track by 2007 and 100% by 2010. This is only applicable to ASEAN-6 i.e. Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Thailand. The remaining ASEAN countries namely, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are given flexibility until 2015 for 100% elimination.
The 2,123 products that have been scheduled for elimination of import duties include fish products (covering 10 tariff lines), vegetable products (9); palm oil (17); prepared food stuff (88); mineral products (17); chemical products (166); plastic and rubber (366); leather (31); and wood products (61).
Others are paper products with 137 tariff lines; footwear (2); ceramic products (94); precious stones (3); base metal i.e. iron and steel (555); machinery (144); vehicles (238); manufactured items (74) and works of art (3).
Import duties on tobacco and tobacco products and tropical fruits, which range currently from 10 to 100 percent will be brought down to five percent while import duties for highly sensitive product such as rice and rice products currently at 40 percent, will be reduced to 20 and 15 respectively. Alcoholic beverages have been excluded from tariff concessions under the CEPT Scheme.
The full CEPT Tariff Reduction Schedule is available on FMM’s website (www.fmm.org.my) under Members Club/International and Trade Promotion section. Information in the Members Club is password protected. Details on activation of the password can be obtained from FMM’s website.
Download:
Challenges and Opportunities in AFTA
Challenges and Opportunities in AFTA (Acrobat File) - A presentation slide by Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)
Further details, please contact Ms Shamini of the FMM Secretariat at tel: 03-62720464, fax: 03-62741266 or e-mail:Ms Shamini.