东盟欧盟美国加强经济合作

The Association of South-East Asian Nations, or Asean, signed an agreement with the United States to strengthen economic ties and reduce trade barriers. Member countries hope to create a common economic unit similar to the European Union in order to ease trade between them and to increase their economic power as a group. At a recent meeting in Malaysia, the countries moved the target date for the single market from 2020 up to 2015. The US pact¹ was called an "arrangement" and not a more formal agreement to avoid the need for US congressional approval, which would have been necessary because of US sanctions against Asean member Mynamar for human rights violations².

1 pact   

n.合同，条约，公约，协定

参考例句：

• The two opposition parties made an electoral pact.那两个反对党订了一个有关选举的协定。
• The trade pact between those two countries came to an end.那两国的通商协定宣告结束。

2 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。