Page 16 - EU_ASEN Relations: Perspectives From Malaysia

This chapter aims to give a brief overview of the development of the economic

relationship between the EU and ASEAN, stressing herein the role of
Malaysia. This chapter consists of four sections: this first section is the

introduction, the second section focuses on the international trade relationship
between ASEAN and EU, the third section analyses the general characteristics

of the EU’s investments in ASEAN, and the final section provides the

conclusion.

Trade relationship between ASEAN and EU

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ASEAN as a group represents the EU’s 3 largest trading partner after the US
and China (European Commission, 2017b). It was reported that more than

€246 billion of trade in goods and services occurred between ASEAN and the
EU in 2014. On the other hand, the EU is ASEAN’s second largest trading

partner after China, accounting for around 13% of ASEAN trade (European
Commission, 2017b). The EU's main exports to ASEAN are chemical

products, machinery, and transport equipment. The main imports from
ASEAN to the EU are machinery and transport equipment, agricultural

products as well as textiles and clothing (European Commission, 2017b).

Besides that, the EU plays an important role in financing regional projects

related to trade and this includes the ASEAN Regional Integration Support

from the EU (ARISE PLUS); COMPASS (Statistics and integration
monitoring); ASEAN Project on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

(ECAP III); ASEAN Air Transport Integration Project (AATIP); and the
Enhanced Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument (e-READI) (European

Commission, 2017b). The EU Commission is willing to negotiate a significant
liberalization of trade in services between the EU and ASEAN regions.

However, the initial EU-ASEAN negotiations were not successful due to

challenges in setting common standards amongst the 10-member countries of

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