Thai Officials Work to Inform Region's Producers of Tariff Incentives.

Byline: Woranuj Maneerungsee

Jul. 27--While Thai beer exports to Singapore now attract no import duty, non-Asean suppliers have to pay 80 cents a litre.

It's surprising how few Asean businessmen are aware of this and a host of other import duty incentives available to them under the economic grouping's Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme, according to Nguyen Ngoc Huy, the investment director of the Asean-Japan Centre.

With this in mind, the centre in co-operation with Asean governments is organising workshops to educate businessmen about the trade privileges available within the region.

In Thailand, the centre is working with the Fiscal Policy Office, which oversees the scheme.

Tariff barriers among Asean nations have been reduced sharply since 1993 when the rates averaged 12.76 percent . Now the average is 3.85 percent with a further reduction to 3.48 percent next year.

Between 1993 and 2000, intra-Asean exports grew to $87.7 billion from $43.26 billion, while Asean's total exports to all markets increased to $696 billion from $374 billion, according to the Asean Secretariat.