Several changes have taken place in the area of ASEAN economic cooperation during the brief interim between the completion of this draft and its publication. ASEAN expanded its membership to include Laos and Myanmar on 23 July 1997. The macroeconomic profile of ASEAN's nine member countries is shown in Table 8.1. The ASEAN Heads of Government meet formally every three years, and in between on an informal basis. The first informal ASEAN Summit was held in Jakarta on 30 November 1996. At the informal Summit the Leaders requested the ministers to develop an ASEAN Vision towards 2020 and the possibility of ASEAN co-operation on the facilitation of goods in transit. The ASEAN Secretariat now has two Deputy Secretary- Generals, one responsible for economic co-operation and the other for other areas of co-operation.

AFTA

The year 1997 marks the fifth year of the implementation of the CEPT scheme for AFTA. Although member countries are only halfway to the deadline of 2003 for realizing AFTA, nearly 42,253 tariff lines (about 90.6 per cent of all tariff lines in ASEAN) have already been included in the CEPT scheme. Average tariff rates for products in the Inclusion List have now fallen to 6.38 per cent from 12.76 per cent in 1993. With the participation of Laos and Myanmar, the Inclusion List under the CEPT scheme will increase from 42,253 to about 45,119 tariff lines, or about 81 per cent of the total tariff lines in ASEAN.

Progress has also been achieved in other areas of implementing AFTA. Firstly, member countries have agreed to issue one legal enactment in 1997 which would cover the whole period of tariff reduction. The previous practice of issuing legislation at the beginning of each year to enact tariff reduction mandated by the CEPT scheme prevented some exporters from immediately enjoying the lower tariffs when the legal enactments were delayed.

Secondly, a great deal of progress was made in eliminating nontariff barriers in the past year. ASEAN removed all customs surcharges on CEPT products at the end of 1996.