欧盟、东盟愿开展自由贸易谈判

A key European Union trade official wants to begin negotiations on a far-reaching free trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. The comments were made at a business summit between EU and Asian officials Sunday in the lead-up to this week's ASEAN summit in Cambodia.

欧州联盟一名关键的贸易官员希望和东南亚国家联盟开始一项利益长远的自由贸易协议谈判。这个说法是星期天欧盟和东盟官员在柬埔寨举行商务峰会期间提出来的，这次峰会是计划本周在柬埔寨举行的东盟峰会的预备会。

European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht is urging closer economic ties between the EU and the ten-member ASEAN bloc. During a conference of EU and ASEAN officials Sunday, De Gucht urged delegates to make "concrete progress" on negotiations for a free trade agreement between the two regions.

欧盟贸易专员卡洛.德.古赫特敦促欧盟和有10个成员国的东盟集团加强经贸联系。在星期天举行的这场欧盟和东盟官员的峰会上，德.古赫特敦促代表团成员为两个地区之间的自由贸易谈判协议做出具体进展。

"We need a comprehensive, 21st-century free trade agreement between our two regions," said De Gucht, "It should tackle the full range of barriers that obstruct flows of goods, services and investment between our regions. And that means not only eliminating tariffs, but also tackling regulations that block trade in goods and services, improving the protection of intellectual property rights, and securing access to markets for government procurements, all within a legally binding framework."

他说：“我们需要一个全方位的、两个地区之间21世纪的自由贸易协议。这项协议应该全面打破限制贸易流通的各种壁垒，让货物、服务行业以及投资在我们这两个地区之间自由流动。这就意味着不仅要消除关税，还要消除防碍货物和服务流通的相关条例，改进保护知识产权的措施，保护政府采购的市场准入，要让所有这些都落实在一个受法律保护的框架之中。”

De Gucht says the European Union will soon begin negotiations on a bilateral trade deal with Vietnam. The E-U has already started discussions with Singapore and Malaysia. But De Gucht says the goal is to strike a free trade agreement with the ASEAN bloc as a whole.

德.古赫特说，欧盟将很快开始和越南展开双边贸易协议谈判。欧盟早已和新加坡以及马来西亚展开了贸易谈判。不过德.古赫特说，谈判的目标是和整个东南亚国家联盟达成一个自由贸易协议。

This year's summit comes amid the ongoing European financial crisis. De Gucht spent much of his speech Sunday assuring ASEAN leaders that the worst of the problems are over. Fifteen years ago, the situation was reversed, with Asian economies locked in financial turmoil.

今年的峰会召开期间正值欧洲陷入金融危机时。德.古赫特星期天用大量的篇幅向东盟各国领导人保证，欧洲最艰难的时期已经过去。15年前，两个地区的局势完全相反，当时亚洲经济遭遇了金融风暴。