India, ASEAN conclude free trade agreement
29/8/2008 17:07
Trade representatives from India and the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) announced in Singapore that they had concluded a free trade
agreement (FTA) yesterday, the Indian Express reported today.
The FTA,
negotiations for which started in 2002, will come into force from January 1,
2009 -- planned tariff reductions by both trading partners will begin in a
phased manner then. The final text of the agreement will be signed by trade
representatives from India and all of ASEAN's 10 member nations in the
ASEAN-India summit in Bangkok in December.
The ASEAN and India will eliminate
import duties on 71 percent of products in their trade basket by December 31,
2012 and another 9 percent by 2015. The deal will also include duties on
products placed in the sensitive list covering about 8-10 percent to be reduced
to 5 percent by 2015. Every country will have certain items exempted from any
tariff reduction commitments according to domestic sensitivities, the report
said.
The current agreement does not yet consider trade in services and
investment. Talks on these will begin soon.
The FTA is aimed at facilitating
an open market environment between the two trading partners with a combined
population of over 1.7 billion people and GDP of almost 2.4 trillion US dollars,
the report said.
Growing at 25 percent, India-ASEAN trade reached US$38
billion last year and a target of US$50 billion has been set for
2010.
Xinhua
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