22-8-2023 (JAKARTA) ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand have signed the Second Protocol to Amend the Agreement Establishing the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA) during the 55th ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting in Semarang, Central Java. The protocol, signed on the sidelines of the meeting, aims to enhance and upgrade the original AANZFTA Agreement, which came into effect on January 1, 2010.
Economic ministers from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, representing ASEAN member states, joined their counterparts from Australia and New Zealand in signing the protocol. The remaining ASEAN member states will sign the protocol in the future, according to the ASEAN Secretariat.
The signing of the second protocol underscores the significance of AANZFTA as the first region-to-region Free Trade Agreement (FTA) for ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand, reaffirming its position as the gold standard among ASEAN’s free trade agreements. The protocol elevates 13 chapters of the original AANZFTA, including rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, investment, competition and consumer protection, and electronic commerce.
Additionally, three new chapters have been introduced in the second protocol, covering government procurement, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and trade and sustainable development. It also includes provisions on education services under the chapter on trade in services.
This marks the second amendment to the AANZFTA since its initial signing in Thailand in February 2009. The first protocol, signed in August 2014, focused on amending chapters related to trade in goods, rules of origin, and operational certification procedures to streamline certification processes and support the movement of goods.
The AANZFTA represents a vast market of approximately 711 million people, with a combined GDP of US$5.9 trillion as of April 2023, based on data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Economic Outlook. Australia and New Zealand collectively rank as ASEAN’s eighth-largest trading partners.
