EU Seeks To Widen Market Access To Counter Trade Restrictions, Germany’s Merz Says
Adedokun Waliyu
2 min read
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Tuesday that the European Union is seeking to collaborate more deeply on open market access to counter restrictions on global trade, including with Southeast Asia and members of the CPTPP trade pact.
The world is changing and the EU, with 450 million consumers, has become more active in seeking and building on partnerships to expand free trade with open competition, reliability and a rules-based order, Merz said during a visit to Singapore.
“This is a deliberate counterpoint to what we are currently seeing … we want to do things differently and we want to show that there is a better way,” Merz told a press conference
The Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, is a trade agreement comprising 12 countries, including Japan, Britain, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia
Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said his country, when it becomes chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc in 2027, will push to make progress on an ASEAN-EU free trade deal
The EU has bilateral FTAs with several ASEAN countries and negotiations are ongoing with other ASEAN members
“We recognise that it will be challenging. It’s complex, but we can also have some confidence in moving forward,” Wong said about the ASEAN-EU agreement
Merz said he has called on the EU to better coordinate its existing bilateral trade frameworks with partners like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and India to “open up better opportunities for us and our businesses in the region”
He also said the EU would be willing to get involved in an ASEAN initiative to integrate its power grids and cooperate more on defence and security.
