The Jakarta Post
Researchers from the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) and the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) have advised ASEAN countries to harmonize their non-tariff measures (NTMs) to boost intra-regional trade. With the adoption of the Asian Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), six members of the association, namely Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, have eliminated import duties on 99.6 percent of their tariff line, while four members, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam, have reduced their import duties to between 0 and 5 percent on 98.86 percent of their tariff line. However, the researchers said that trade in the region remained low due to NTM policies enforced in ASEAN countries, such as trade quotas, licenses, regulations, label requirements, price controls and anticompetitive measures. In 2019, Indonesia’...