The 46th Meeting of the Coordinating Committee on the Implementation of the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) and related meetings will take place from December 4 to 7, 2024, in Pattaya, Thailand, to discuss the implementation issues of the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement.

Under the ATIGA, the Coordinating Committee on the Implementation of theATIGA (CCA) was established to assist ASEAN Senior Economic Officials (SEOM) and the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) Council in ensuring the effective implementation of the ATIGA.

Since its entry into force on May 17, 2010, ASEAN Member States have substantially completed their market access commitments and fully implemented other obligations under the Agreement. Specifically, ASEAN countries have so far eliminated an average of 98.64% of tariff lines, with Viet Nam eliminating around 98.2% (currently retaining about 1.8% of tariff lines covering 111 items classified under highly sensitive categories related to defense, security, and social concerns, as well as 55 sensitive agricultural products with non-zero tariff rates). Despite the high elimination rate of tariffs within ASEAN, intra-regional trade accounts for only about 23% of the bloc’s total trade. Therefore, finding solutions to boost intra-regional trade has been a key priority for ASEAN, specifically under CCA’s agenda, in recent years.

The 46th meeting is scheduled at the year-end to focus on several issues, namely annual priorities of the CCA for 2025, long standing implementation issues, and agendas to improve the effectiveness of ATIGA implementation in the future, particularly on measures that can help to increase ATIGA utilization rates.

Additionally, according to the roadmap for Timor-Leste to become a full ASEAN member, the ATIGA will be one of the ASEAN economic agreements it must join. Thus, at this meeting, the CCA will discuss with Timor-Leste its readiness to join the ATIGA.