Sunday, August 29, 2010

US-ASEAN Economic Relations "High Priority"

Hanoi-economic relations between the United States and Southeast Asia have "high priority", said a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Saturday (28 / 8), although U.S. officials absent from the meeting an important trade region.

The ministers from China, Japan, India and leading trade partners from 10 other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) attended the annual meeting which ended Friday, the central Vietnamese city, Danang, but U.S. officials are absent.

As quoted by Antara, Saturday (28 / 8), the analysts blamed political factors for the domestic United States because it is not shown. "The economic and trade officials the U.S. government continues to maintain a constant and active dialogue with their ASEAN partners," said embassy spokesman told AFP. "And we consider the US-ASEAN economic relations continued to receive high priority."


A spokesman, who declined to be named, added that the representatives of the World Business Council US-ASEAN - which includes executives from major companies - attended the meeting Danang. "The people of American business world is a strong partner for ASEAN," the council said in a statement.

It takes part in more than a decade in annual economic negotiations of ASEAN. Deputy U.S. trade representative Marantis Demetrios said, the U.S. is the largest investor in his country, which currently heads the ASEAN.

Vietnam and the two other ASEAN members, Brunei and Singapore, is part of the negotiations with the United States and others, aimed at brewing trade agreements Trans-Pacific partnership.

ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said in Danang, that "we are disappointed" that the U.S. did not attend the annual economic discussions, but he calls Washington's commitment to the area was still "very strong." Surin said there were "many levels of agreement", and economic ministers from ASEAN group visited the U.S. in March.

The U.S. is the fourth largest trading partner of Southeast Asia, with reciprocal trade volume reached more than 149 billion dollars last year, according to records of ASEAN.

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