ASEAN Signs Free-Trade Pact

Leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations are meeting in Thailand today to sign their long-anticipated agreement for a free trade zone with Australia and New Zealand.

Negotiations for the free trade pact began in 2004 and were successfully completed last year.

The Southeast Asian nations attending the meeting, the annual ASEAN summit, are also expected to sign a document outlining further steps for achieving ASEAN's goal of forming a European Union-style economic community by 2015.

Thailand's economy, undermined by political unrest, shrank in the fourth quarter and other nations such as Malaysia and the Philippines are struggling with steeply decreasing growth because of a dramatic drop in demand for their exports.

ASEAN has "always been open to free trade and we want more of it," Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told reporters. "With the recent economic crisis our position is to have unhindered global trade," he said.