General Background

The first formal meeting between ASEAN and Canada was held in February 1977. At the meeting, the Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs informed the Chair of the ASEAN Standing Committee of her proposal to extend a programme of development assistance to ASEAN. This commitment was later formalised in 1981 with the signing of the ASEAN-Canada Economic Cooperation Agreement (ACECA) which came into force on 1 June 1982.

The ACECA provided for industrial and commercial cooperation in addition to technical cooperation. It also established the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) to promote and review the various cooperation activities envisaged between ASEAN and Canada. On July 1993, a revised ACECA was signed incorporating new areas of cooperation which included science and technology and environment policy networking, institutional-building, organisational and management development programmes and efforts to stimulate private sector activities, market development and bi-lateral business cooperation, among others. It entered into force on 1 April 1994.

The year 1997 marks the 20th anniversary of ASEAN-Canada dialogue relations. During the 11th ASEAN-Canada JCC held in Montreal in May 1997, it was agreed that a working group be formed to review the ASEAN-Canada development cooperation and to take stock of the past twenty years to further consolidate the ASEAN-Canada Dialogue.

Institutional Framework

As a Dialogue Partner, Canada participates in a series of consultative meetings with ASEAN which includes the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC) 9+1 and 9+10, Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) Meeting, Joint Planning and Monitoring Committee Meetings (JPMC) and the Project Steering Committee Meetings (PSC). The ASEAN-Canada Business Council also assists in conducting and maintaining dialogue with Canada.

At the apex of the dialogue process is Canada's participation in the PMC process immediately following the annual ASEAN Ministerial Meetings. The PMC 9+1 and 9+10 meetings offer an opportunity for the ASEAN and Canadian Foreign Ministers to review contemporary political, security, economic and development cooperation issues affecting the dialogue relationship. Canada also participates in the ARF which takes stock of key regional political and security issues affecting the East Asian region. Periodic dialogue meetings are held at the level of ASEAN's Directors-General and Canada's Deputy Minister from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade to provide a more in-depth examination of immediate economic and functional cooperation activities. In addition, Ad-hoc Working Groups have been established to deal with specific issues in most of the JCC meetings. Among the issues taken up by the Ad-hoc Working Groups were commercial cooperation, science and technology, development cooperation, industrial cooperation and trade and investment.

The Management mechanism at the project level are the Project Steering Committees (PSCs) which review and approve project design documents, annual reports and plans, and budgets. They initiate periodic evaluations and attempt to initiate corrective action where required. Since planning and implementation issues do arise at the programme level and since the JCC does not meet frequently to address such issues, an inter sessional meeting between JCCs was suggested by the Ad-hoc Working Groups on Commercial and Industrial Cooperation and Development Cooperation during the 9th ASEAN-Canada JCC held in Ottawa in June 1994.

Economic Cooperation

Trade flows between ASEAN and Canada have grown steadily. Canada's imports from ASEAN has increased from US$1.56 billion in 1993 to US$2.33 billion in 1996 while Canada's exports to ASEAN has decreased marginally. In 1993, total exports to ASEAN was US$1.96 billion and in 1996 it dropped to US$1.9 billion. As a result ASEAN has been registering a trade surplus with Canada since 1995 and this trend is likely to continue in the coming years.

In order to facilitate and increase trade and investments flows between the two sides, the 11th ASEAN-Canada JCC in May 1997 has suggested that the proposal put forward at the 10th ASEAN-Canada JCC to convene the meeting of the JCC Trade and Investment Cooperation Subcommittee, originally scheduled to take place during the Fall of 1996 in Vancouver, be also discussed by the Working Group being established to review development cooperation and to take stock of the 20 years of ASEAN-Canada Dialogue relations.

Development Cooperation

Over the years, Canada has extended development cooperation to ASEAN in the areas of forestry, human resources development, fisheries, energy, agriculture, transportation and communication.

Most of the projects under the ASEAN-Canada Dialogue are expected to be completed within 1997. These include the ASEAN Institute of Forest Management, Phases I and II; ASEAN Forest Tree Seed Centre and ASEAN-Canada Fisheries Post Harvest Technology Project, Phases I and II. Other on-going projects include the ASEAN-Canada Regional Training Programme and the ASEAN-Canada Cooperative Programme for Marine Science.

In addition to co-financing development cooperation projects with ASEAN, Canada also co-funds a project on skills development for women which comes under the purview of the ASEAN Women's Sub committee .

Current ASEAN-Canada Relationship

Efforts to revitalize the dialogue between ASEAN and Canada are continuing.  As a starting point, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of the ASEAN-Canada Regional Training Programme (RTP) is being revised to make it responsive to the current situations in ASEAN and Canada. A mutually acceptable MOU for the RTP would pave the way for the convening of the 12th ASEAN-Canada Joint Cooperation Committee meeting.