World trading system is broken - though ASEAN leads the way

“It’s never too late to make good trade policy. But I will say this: The world trading system is broken. Trump is “dead serious” in his determination to push China to change its trade policies.” Larry Kudlow, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, 7 September 2018

It has been great to spend some time in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur over the last week, including attending Cyber Security Asia 2018 in KL and the second Cyber Risk Meetup in Singapore.

My trip came off the back of the 50th ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting in Singapore, which is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) chair this year, hosting the annual series of meetings at the Shangri-La Hotel. In his opening speech, Prime Minister Lee confirmed that strengthening regional economic cooperation and integration is key for ASEAN to fully realise its potential. This includes progressing the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint 2025, as well as supporting an open and inclusive multilateral system amid growing trade conflict. Despite the trade uncertainty raised by the USA and China trade war, ASEAN leaders also agreed to work on the Digital Trade Standards Cooperation Initiative - a joint development by ASEAN and Australia.

The same week also saw Australia and Indonesia conclude an agreement of closer economic engagement, signing the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA) designed to drive growth for Australian business by creating new opportunities in Indonesia. Australia’s Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Karen Andrews said “Under this agreement, over 99 per cent of Australian goods exported to Indonesia will either be duty free or enter under significantly improved preferential arrangements by 2020.” Underlining the importance of the deal, Australia’s newest Prime Minister, the sixth leader for the country in a decade, ensured he kept with Malcolm Turnbull’s commitment to attend. Worth noting also, Scott Morrison has banned Chinese companies from supplying equipment for Australia's 5G network and eliminated the ministries of Innovation and Cyber Security in his Cabinet reshuffle.

Without too much surprise to those who remain cynical over the North Korean leader’s summit, US President Donald Trump has cancelled a planned trip by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo due to insufficient progress toward ending North Korea's nuclear program. Leon Panetta, a former defence secretary and CIA director under President Obama said he is "very worried" about the situation with North Korea following President Trump and Kim Jong Un's "failed summit" that was "doomed to failure.”

“The problem is that in many ways it was doomed to failure from the beginning because there was never the preparatory work that has to be done prior to a summit meeting," Panetta said about the meeting between the two leaders in Singapore. “They shook hands; they exchanged words. When the balloons went away, when the confetti went away, there was nothing there to require the North Koreans to do what was necessary in order to denuclearise,” Panetta said on US television show "This Week."

Amongst a jam-packed edition promoting the region’s best security and technology events, we have special reports on India’s registration of citizenship being undertaken by the government in the north-eastern state of Assam, which has determined four million people to be illegal immigrants. We also have a number of reports from Singapore Correspondent Jane Lo, including her interview with Australian Cyber Affairs Ambassador Dr Tobias Feakin and former Head of Security and CISO at the Bank of England Don Randall, MBE, as well as insights gained from the Law Society of Singapore Cyber Security Conference. We also retain selected articles from last months Australian Security Magazine, including Dr. Keith Suter’s article on the security implications of an aging population.

And on that note, as always, we provide plenty of thought provoking material and there is so much more to touch on. Stay tuned with us as we continue to explore, educate, entertain and most importantly, engage.

Chris Cubbage

CPP, CISA, RSecP, GAICD

Executive Editor