ASEAN: Regional Trends in Economic Integration, Export ... - USITC

cumbersome rules of origin, customs procedures need to be simplified, and nontariff
barriers need to be eliminated. The Chamber asserted that Southeast Asia risks being left
behind unless it speeds up economic integration, and ASEAN’s self-imposed deadline of
five more years does not leave much time to solve the necessary technical and political
challenges.
The Chamber expressed its opinion that investment in the ASEAN region is held back by
differences between countries in regulations and business environments, as well as
political and business culture. The 2009 ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement
(ACIA) consolidated earlier ASEAN investment agreements, but the AICA only covers a
limited number of sectors and does not include logistics services. According to the
submission, U.S. companies canvassed by the Chamber urge ASEAN to undertake efforts
to enhance the transparency of investment legislation, and address restrictions from
overlapping and contradictory legislation, regulations, and licensing criteria, which
effectively negate the benefits of the liberalization measures.
The U.S. business community, as represented by the Chamber, supports efforts to
implement the ASEAN Single Window (ASW) because it believes the ASW will reduce
the cost and complexities of doing business in the region. The Chamber added that for
ASW to be effective, some ASEAN countries will need to make improvements in their
legal and administrative infrastructure, such as implementing clear and transparent import
and export procedures, increasing cooperation among government bodies, and providing
facilities for e-commerce. The ASW has made only slow progress in recent years at both
the national and ASEAN levels: at the regional level, it is unclear to U.S. companies what
ASW is supposed to do and whether it is merely a collection of individual country
national single windows (NSWs) or intended to move toward an integrated ASW that
will give traders from outside ASEAN a portal to access ASEAN NSWs. The Chamber
would like more regular updates from ASEAN member countries on the development of
NSWs and regular discussions between U.S. companies in the region and the ASW
Steering Committee.
The Chamber’s submission reported that its member companies believe that the focus of
ASEAN should shift to the progressive elimination of nontariff barriers (NTBs) now that
ASEAN tariff elimination has largely taken place. According to the Chamber, the
elimination of NTBs by ASEAN should be considered as important as eliminating tariffs.
One of the top concerns of U.S. companies doing business in ASEAN is the lack of
transparency in government regulation and rules; in particular, unique technical standards
and differing technical regulations and processes increase investment costs, both at the
national and regional levels.
The Chamber noted that ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Standards and Quality
(ACCSQ) is working to address different standards between ASEAN member countries,
but the Chamber is requesting more dialogue between government entities and private
sector interests to identify key areas of focus for standards and identify mechanisms for
improving the regional standards regime. Two other Chamber recommendations to
ASEAN members include developing national Websites for publishing regulations and
standards and partnering with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for
technology transfers.
Finally, the Chamber’s submission and hearing testimony provided specific comments
from their members in the electronics, logistics services, automotives, agro-based
products, and healthcare sectors. In the area of electronics, member companies are
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