EU advancing in trade agreement talks with Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, trade chief says

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -The European Union is "advancing" in negotiations with the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia on new free trade agreements, its trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on Thursday. 

Sefcovic was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting in Kuala Lumpur between the economic ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the bloc's trading partners. 

The EU wants to expand its trade ties beyond existing free trade agreements with Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia.  

The EU and Indonesia concluded a free trade agreement on Tuesday after nine years of talks, with both aiming to boost exports and investment and to offset the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.

"We have advanced very well in our free trade negotiations with Thailand, with the Philippines, and also with Malaysia," Sefcovic told reporters. 

"My message to my partners in ASEAN was that we do not want to stop here."

He said he expected the EU to finalise and sign trade deals with Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia by next year.  

In separate remarks to ASEAN ministers, Sefcovic said the bilateral deals between the EU and Southeast Asian countries were a "building block" for an eventual region-to-region FTA between the two blocs. 

(Reporting by Danial Azhar; Editing by David Stanway)