EU finally clinching trade deals with Southeast Asian states
David Hutt
September 23, 2026
After years of arduous negotiations, the EU is closing on a string of bilateral trade deals with countries in Southeast Asia. And yet, a bloc-to-bloc agreement between the EU and ASEAN remains a distant prospect.
The EU and several Southeast Asian countries are nearing the completion of bilateral trade agreements, and if current timelines are met, the European bloc will have agreements in place with six of ASEAN’s 11 member states by the middle of next year.
Free trade agreements with Singapore and Vietnam are already in force. Negotiations with Indonesia have concluded, and Jakarta aims to sign the agreement in October, with implementation targeted for early 2027.
Talks with Thailand, relaunched in 2023, have reached nine negotiating rounds, while Malaysia resumed negotiations in early 2025 after a 13-year pause. Both agreements are expected to be finalized by the end of this year or early 2027.
Earlier this week, the EU and the Philippines announced that they had reached a “substantial agreement” on their free trade agreement, putting the negotiations on course for formal conclusion in the coming months.
Trade up by more than half in a decade
Speaking to DW, Chris Humphrey, executive director of the EU-ASEAN Business Council, described EU engagement with ASEAN on trade and investment as being “at an all-time high.”
Trade in goods between the EU and Southeast Asia reached
€274.9 billion ($313.7 billion) last year, an increase of around 6% from the previous year and more than 50% higher than the
€177.9 billion recorded in 2016, according to EU data.
ASEAN is now the EU’s
third-largest trading partner in goods outside Europe, behind only the United States and China.
This week, Manila hosted both the ASEAN-EU Business Summit and the 22nd meeting between ASEAN economic ministers and the EU trade commissioner.
The two sides pledged greater cooperation to protect themselves from growing geopolitical tensions, including unilateral trade measures and regional conflicts, which they said “collectively threaten the rules-based international order.”
Why is Southeast Asia so important for Europe?
Brussels is expanding its global network of trade agreements as it seeks access to new markets and more resilient supply chains.
Southeast Asia occupies an important position in global supply chains for
semiconductors, electronics, electric vehicles, and batteries, while investment is also flowing into data centers, renewable energy, and digital services.
An article published this month by the International Monetary Fund said ASEAN’s
11 economies already form a $4.5 trillion economic bloc, growing at more than
4.5% annually.
This economic expansion, combined with multinational companies’ efforts to diversify production beyond China, has made access to Southeast Asian markets increasingly attractive to European businesses.
Alfred Gerstl, an expert on Indo-Pacific international relations at the University of Vienna, told DW that geopolitical and geo-economic changes are also accelerating cooperation between the two regions.
He said US President Donald Trump’s “protectionist and erratic trade policies” have acted as an important catalyst, while the EU’s strategy of “de-risking from China” and diversifying supply chains has increased Southeast Asia’s strategic importance.
Closer economic relations with European countries also fit the interests of Southeast Asian governments, which have long sought to maintain broad economic relationships with competing powers rather than becoming excessively dependent on China, the United States, or any other single partner.
EU companies push for an ASEAN-wide deal
Humphrey said the EU-ASEAN Business Council is calling for a
region-to-region economic framework with a clear pathway toward an eventual EU-ASEAN free trade agreement, something European businesses have consistently advocated.
“This would adopt a modular approach, perhaps starting with a region-to-region Digital Trade Agreement and an Investment Protection Agreement,” Humphrey told DW.
The idea is not new. The EU and ASEAN launched negotiations for a region-to-region trade agreement in
2007, but the talks became bogged down because of major differences among ASEAN economies and disagreements over the scope of the agreement.
The negotiations were suspended by mutual agreement in
2009, after which Brussels shifted toward negotiating bilateral agreements with individual ASEAN member states.
The fundamental challenge remains. ASEAN includes
Singapore, one of the world’s wealthiest economies, alongside developing and least-developed economies, making it difficult to establish common commitments that are acceptable both to all ASEAN members and to Brussels.
“In addition, meeting the EU’s high social, labor and environmental standards is difficult for the less-developed ASEAN members,” Gerstl said.
Is the European Commission ready to go further?
Even without an immediate prospect of a comprehensive region-to-region agreement, completing the bilateral agreements currently under negotiation would give the EU preferential trade arrangements with most of ASEAN’s largest economies and demonstrate that Southeast Asia has moved higher on Brussels’ trade agenda.
For Humphrey, however, bilateral agreements should be the starting point rather than the endpoint. His concern is that the European Commission may not be willing to move toward broader region-to-region agreements.
“With 2027 marking the
50th anniversary of EU-ASEAN relations, we remain hopeful that the Commission will take this milestone seriously and ramp up work on a region-to-region economic architecture,” Humphrey told DW.
“Failing to do so will only make ASEAN think that the EU does not take the region seriously.”
After years of arduous negotiations, the EU is closing on a string of bilateral trade deals with countries in Southeast Asia. And yet, a bloc-to-bloc agreement between the EU and ASEAN remains a distant prospect.
amp.dw.com
