Page 11 - ASEAN-EU Dialogue 2018: Regional and Inter-Regional Economic Cooperation: Identifying Priorities for ASEAN and the EU

that are considered burdensome (pose difficulties) to businesses. For legitimate standard-like
NTMs, procedural reforms are needed, as removal of these measures is not an option.

Once the overall regulatory reform is completed at the national level in the AMS, there should
be a clear understanding on where regulatory convergence should be promoted. Only then it
can be placed on the regional platform for the purpose of harmonizing cross-border standards
3
to facilitate trade and deepen regional integration. Since complete harmonization is politically
not feasible for a region like ASEAN, coordination through mutual recognition agreements
4
(MRAs) of conformity assessment procedures may be the next best option. The focal point of
ASEAN should therefore be on streamlining of targeted NTMs across the AMS to ensure
regulatory coherence (and indirectly deal with restrictive standards), and subsequently reduce
opacity and discourage hidden protectionism.

Acknowledgement:
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union H2020
Framework Programme CP-2016-under grant agreement n°770562 (IF002AB-2018).

3 The regulatory rapprochement includes harmonisation, MRA or coordination. Harmonisation involves the
standardisation of regulations. MRA involves the acceptance of different forms of regulation amongst countries
as ‘equivalent.’ Coordination refers to actions to narrow any significant differences between national-level
regulations.
4 The ASEAN Consultative Committee on Standards and Quality (ACCSQ) is working on MRAs among member
countries for a variety of products.
5