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

The ASEAN Secretariat provides little direct assistance for modernization of member
countries’ customs agencies because of the Secretariat’s limited financial resources (as
noted earlier, its total budget for 2010 is $14.5 million). 105 Multilateral and bilateral
donors sponsor most such assistance. Examples include the World Bank’s Laos Customs
and Trade Facilitation Project 106 and Vietnam Customs Modernization Project 107 and the
U.S. Agency for International Development’s Local Implementation of National
Competitiveness for Economic Growth (LINC-EG) Program for the Philippines. 108
Logistics Services
Logistics services are “a range of related activities that ensure the efficient movement of
production inputs and finished products.” 109 Companies that specialize in logistics,
known as third-party logistics service providers (3PLs), offer services such as supplychain
consulting, transportation management (e.g., warehousing, cargo handling, and
customs brokerage), freight transport, and express delivery. 110 Large 3PLs operating in
ASEAN include firms from outside the region (e.g., DB Schenker, DHL, Kuehne +
Nagel, and Nippon Express), as well as firms based within it (e.g., Singapore’s APL
Logistics and Toll Global Logistics). 111
In August 2007, ASEAN members named logistics services (like the six sectors
discussed in detail in this study) a Priority Integration Sector. The Roadmap for the
Integration of Logistics Services commits members to “substantial liberalization” of
logistics services by 2013. 112 The Roadmap names specific logistics services to be
liberalized, including customs brokerage, storage and warehousing, packaging, freight
forwarding, cargo handling, international freight transport, and express delivery. It also
lists numerous measures in the domains of “trade and customs facilitation” and “logistics
facilitation,” including the completion of new ASEAN agreements (e.g., the ASEAN
Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Inter-State Transport) and implementation of
existing ones (e.g., the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Goods in
Transit).
The quality of logistics services varies substantially among the ASEAN countries. The
World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) for 2010 ranks Singapore second and
Burma 133rd among 155 countries (table 2.9). Recent research points to a strong inverse
105 ASEAN Secretariat official, interview by USITC staff, Jakarta, Indonesia, March 1, 2010; ASEAN
Secretariat staff, e-mail to USITC staff, April 29, 2010. The ASEAN Charter stipulates that members make
equal contributions to the annual budget; ASEAN, “ASEAN Leaders Sign ASEAN Charter,”
November 20, 2007.
106 Laos Customs and Trade Facilitation Project Web site,
http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&men
uPK=228424&Projectid=P101750 (accessed April 28, 2010).
107 Vietnam Customs Modernization Project Web site,
http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=64290415&theSitePK=40941&
menuPK=228424&Projectid=P085071 (accessed April 28, 2010).
108 USAID Philippines Web site, http://philippines.usaid.gov/eg_linc-eg.html (accessed April 28, 2010).
109 USITC, Logistic Services, 2005, vii.
110 Ibid., 1–3.
111 De Souza et al., An Investigation into the Measures, 2007, 9–10. Toll Global Logistics is based in
Singapore but is owned by an Australian parent company. Toll Group Web site,
http://www.toll.com.sg/crp_brc.php (accessed April 22, 2010).
112 ASEAN, “Roadmap for the Integration of Logistics Services,” August 24, 2007. The ASEAN
Economic Blueprint uses stronger language: it says that members will “remove substantially all restrictions”
on trade in logistics services by 2013. ASEAN, “ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint,”
November 20, 2007, section II.A2.
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