JAKARTA (Dow Jones) – Six major members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will remove tariffs on cross-border transactions of goods on Jan. 1 next year in a move toward broader trade liberalization and integration, the 10-member bloc said in a statement.

The statement, released over the weekend, said Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand--the so-called Asean-6 members--will "achieve their zero-tariff target for all merchandises moving across their borders."

The finalization of the tariff cuts, part of an initiative to create an Asean single market by 2015, comes as the economic downturn has placed renewed focus on restrictions to trade and as world leaders seek to rebalance the global economy away from the model of Asian exporters depending on US consumers.

"Asean's systematic forward movement towards tariff liberalisation is an indication of how a regional grouping addresses the concerns of rising protectionism," which have been raised at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore last week, the statement said.

The tariff reductions are a key part of the Asean Free Trade Area initiative introduced in 1992 under which the six countries, who were the original Asean members, agreed to cut most tariffs to between zero and 5% by next year. The bloc has since been expanded to include Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, who will commit to reducing tariffs under AFTA, as the trade agreement is known, by 2015. AFTA covers tariffs on most goods excluding special cases such as market-sensitive agricultural products, cultural and artistic artefacts, and individual goods which member-nations can nominate for temporary tariff protection.

A World Bank report last year forecast that cutting tariffs in Asean could increase intraregional trade by around 2% annually, or $6.3 billion, while a reduction of non-tariff barriers, such as improvement in port facilities and internet service, could further boost trade.