Former Thai Deputy Premier Forecasts More Trade in Asia.

Aug. 3--The "awakening" of Asian giants in Japan, China and India will intensify trade within the region, former deputy premier Supachai Panitchpakdi said yesterday.

Speaking after the launch of an Asian Wise Persons Group, of which he is a member, Dr Supachai said intra-regional trade already accounted for half of all Asian countries' trading.

"A couple of years from now this trend will widen further," he told a press conference at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap).

Japan was changing from a country that shunned bilateral agreements to one that is actively promoting bilateral, preferential trade agreements, he noted. Because the "trade-promoting exercises" were starting with countries in Asia, there would be more Japanese support for intra-Asian trade, he added.

China's imminent membership of the World Trade Organisation meant two things -- that China would be treated with most-favoured nation status on a more permanent basis, and that its markets will open up to the rest of the world, including Asia. The latter would contribute to a widening of the marketplace in Asia, said Dr Supachai, who will become the WTO director-general next year.

India was also opening up through a "landslide" reform programme in April that eliminated quotas from about 1,500 items. This would boost India's trade with other Asian states as well as the rest of the world, he said. "The three trends signify that with the awakening of all these giants, not only at the ...