Today the news feed brought
in another example of how many of the ASEAN Economic Community’s major problems
are in the compliance and enforcement of existing ASEAN agreements, rather than
the creation of new agreements.
In the January
6, 2015, Bangkok Post, the Thai Association of Domestic Travel urged the
Thai government to push for an ASEAN driver’s license to facilitate travel by
tourists:
Yutthachai Sunthornrattanavej, chairman of the ADT,
said on Tuesday that his association planned to submit a letter to Tourism and
Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul asking for guidelines to boost tourism
in border areas before the launch of the Asean Economic Community later this
year with an eye toward making Thailand Asean's tourism hub. He urged the
ministry to hold meetings with provincial chambers of commerce, immigration
offices in border provinces, and officials from neighbouring countries to
jointly lay guidelines for personal travel, particularly the issuance of Asean
driving licenses.
It would seem reasonable
to create an ASEAN driver’s license, which would allow for cross-border access
by ASEAN drivers in other ASEAN member states.
However, this raises the question of which authority would issue an
ASEAN driver’s license, since there is no ASEAN institution that would have
sufficient supranational authority to do so.
Better then, to have
mutual recognition within ASEAN of drivers’ licenses issued by other national
authorities in ASEAN member states.
After all, that is what happens in the EU, where drivers’ licenses of
the various EU member states are recognized by other EU member states.
Indeed, this is such a
good idea that it was actually agreed upon thirty
years ago by the ASEAN member states in the Agreement
on the Recognition of Domestic Driving Licences Issued by ASEAN Countries:
The
Contracting Parties agree to recognize all domestic driving licences except for
temporary/ provisional/learner's driving licences (hereinafter referred to as
"the licences") issued by the designated authorities or national
automobile associations of the ASEAN countries.
By virtue of the recognition hereby of the licences, holders of the licences issued in any one
of the ASEAN countries and intending to take only a temporary stay in the
territory of any of the other ASEAN countries may drive therein the classes or
types of vehicles the licences permit them to drive.
Hence there already exists
an “ASEAN driving licence” scheme that would allow for ASEAN nationals to drive
in Thailand.
So what is the Thai
association complaining about? The Bangkok
Post article goes on to state that:
The existing
regulations limit the travel of not more than 200km from checkpoints bordering
Malaysia, said Mr Yutthachai. He believed the regulations, if adjusted,
would boost the number of tourists in the country. Tourists from other border
areas could travel to Bangkok and other tourism towns like Pattaya, thus
generating more revenue.
Thus, the problem
identified by the Thai association is with Thai domestic implementation of the existing
1985 ASEAN agreement. The Thai
government is not giving full effect to the agreement because ASEAN drivers are
limited to the border regions and not throughout Thailand, as specified in the
agreement.
This rather prosaic example
illustrates the importance of monitoring compliance with ASEAN measures beyond
the border, as well as the need to publicize existing ASEAN commitments. In addition, it underlies the need to
strengthen ASEAN institutions to perform these functions: clearly the Thai tourism association’s
problem is with its own government, but if its own government refuses to
implement the 1985 ASEAN agreement fully, the association has no other
recourse, as the ASEAN institutions as currently situated do not have authority
to do more than publicize the non-compliance.
In other words, the ASEAN
agreements must be given full effect for the ASEAN Economic Community to
function properly, even with regard to the “small” aspects of ASEAN.
