The Asean-eu dialogue relations were institutionalised with the signing of the asean-eec cooperation Agreement on March 1980, and eu has since become an important asean dialogue Partner

8.            EU is one of ASEAN’s major trading partners and a main source of investment flows into ASEAN. The ASEAN total trade with EU has grown from USD 186.7 billion in 2007 to USD 202.5 billion in 2008. The total EU FDI flows to ASEAN has also grown from USD 10.6 billion in 2006 to USD 12.4 billion in 2008. The number of tourists coming from EU countries also rose from 7.7 million in 2007 to 8.2 million in 2008. The ASEAN-Dialogue Partners (including EU) trade and investment statistic data can be accessed through http://www.asean.org/19230.htm.

9.            In order to promote trade and investment flows between the two regions,  ASEAN and EU agreed on the Trans-Regional ASEAN-EU Trade Initiatives (TREATI), which is a policy dialogue mechanism/process in economic and trade related issues. TREATI will also include technical assistance and pave the foundation for the development of an ASEAN- EU FTA.

10.         Pursuant to the establishment of TREATI, various activities were undertaken during 2004-2009. They include, among others, workshops and consultations among the EU and ASEAN officials and business representatives on subject matters covering trade facilitation, investment, food safety, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and customs.

11.         ASEAN-EU economic relations are expected to be further intensified and strengthened with the launch of the ASEAN-EU FTA Negotiations in May 2007. A Joint Committee (JC) comprising senior officials was established to work on the modalities, work programme and time schedules for the FTA negotiations. The ASEAN-EU JC has since met seven times to further develop the details of the negotiations. Six Expert Groups were set up for Services and Establishment/Investment, Rules of Origin, Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Customs and Trade Facilitation and Dispute Settlement respectively. However, to allow for reflection on the appropriate format for the FTA negotiations, the 7^th Meeting of the Joint Committee for the ASEAN-EU FTA, which was held on 5-6 March 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, agreed to take a pause in the negotiations.