EU Enjoy Hopeful of FTA with Malaysia

PETALING JAYA (Selangor,Malaysia), June 23 (Bernama) -- The European Union (EU) hopes the Free-Trade Agreement (FTA) with Malaysia will be materialised, said its Ambassador and Head of Delegation to Malaysia, Vincent Piket. "Negotiations are in progress, both are working hard on both sides, because it covers manufactured goods and services, thus it is a complex and broad agreement. "It is broader than any other FTA Malaysia have negotiated with anybody so we are breaking ground here," Piket said after giving an ambassadorial brief on 'How Europe is Coping with the Eurozone Crisis', hosted by the Malaysian Institute of Management here Friday. "We have to work diligently at it and I am optimistic because I feel there is commitment at the political level in Malaysia and also on the EU side and that will without a doubt produce results," he said. Asked about the current stage of the FTA negotiations, he said: "It is hard to say where we are, but currently we are making progress, in so many different areas at the same time. "The bottom line is that with negotiations, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed." For both sides it will bring mutual benefits, for the Malaysian and European economy, because it will cover trade as well as investments, and the key thing is that it will bring the EU-Malaysia relationship to a totally new level, he said. He added that currently Malaysia and the EU do not have a bilateral trade agreement, but this FTA is needed so that firms can achieve their targets, with both manufacturing and service sectors expanding internationally and also in Europe. --BERNAMA