ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is composed of 10 Member States, namely, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

At the 4th ASEAN Summit in January 1992, the ASEAN Heads of Government agreed to establish an ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) by the year 2008 to open up their economies in the era of globalization. The main implementing mechanism of AFTA was the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Scheme. The Agreement on the CEPT-AFTA was signed in Singapore on 28 January 1992.

On 23 August 2007, the 21st AFTA Council Meeting agreed to enhance the CEPT-AFTA Agreement into a comprehensive Trade in Goods Agreement for the AFTA.

The ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement was signed on 26 February 2009 and is the product of the enhancement and consolidation of all existing provisions under the CEPT-AFTA Agreement and relevant ASEAN economic agreements and instruments.

ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) aims to achieve free flow of goods in the region resulting to less trade barriers and deeper economic linkages among Member States, lower business costs, increased trade, and a larger market and economies of scale for businesses.  Through ATIGA, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand have eliminated intra-ASEAN import duties on 99.65 percent of their tariff lines.  Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam have reduced their import duties to 0-5 percent on 98.86 percent of their tariff lines.