Asean has agreed to adopt a "standstill" on non-tariff barriers, with a ban on new measures and a resolution to slash existing ones in order to free up trade, Malaysia said at ministerial talks.

"The standstill is a very important decision," Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz told reporters late Monday at the start of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) ministerial talks.

"From the standstill, work will be done to remove as many (non-tariff barriers) as possible," she added, without setting any timetable.

Yesterday, Rafidah chaired the Asean Free Trade Council meeting which monitors the progress and constraints of free trade. Under the Asean Free Trade Area, the region hopes to have a free flow of goods among the 10-member bloc by 2010.

Rafidah said Asean was currently working to identify the non-tariff barriers.

"Now the work becomes more challenging because AFTA is now part and parcel of the Asean Economic Community concept," she said.

Under the ambitious European-style Asean Economic Community, there would be a free flow of trade, investments and services among member nations in sectors including transport, telecommunications and finance.

Topping the agenda of Asean trade ministers' talks this week is the goal of advancing economic integration by five years to 2015, casting aside tariffs and red tape which make the unified China market more attractive to manufacturers.

Citing an example of a non-tariff barrier, Rafidah said Thailand required all of Malaysia's palm oil to be imported by its public agency.

"There are non-tariff barriers that we are tasking officials to study. Like Thailand, all palm oil must be imported through the public warehouse organisation. They designate who should buy the palm oil," she said.

Next chunk of work

Asean Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said Asean should minimise non-tariff barriers to boost trade.

"If we have minimum non-tariff barriers, we will have higher intra-Asean trade. With fewer barriers there will be more trade," he said.

Ong said the non-tariff barriers were originally established to protect local industries.

"Now, we have reached a point where we can say quite confidently that we must remove these barriers to improve free trade. That is the next chunk of our work," he said.

Ong said the decision was significant, because it was a "signal to our private sector in each of our member countries that we cannot depend on the government to always come out with ideas to protect the industries."

"They have to now learn to be competitive and produce things that the consumers will buy. If it not affordable consumers will buy other products of the same kind made elsewhere," he said.