A Free Trade Agreement between India and Asean covering investment and services has reached the last leg of negotiations, and is likely be formalised Wednesday.
“The three pillars of India-Asean economic relations are FTA in goods (finalised in 2009, in effect from 2010), services and investment. The delay in a consensus on FTA in services and investment can be attributed to... 10 nations having different issues and challenges, he-nce the complexities,” said Dr Cham Prasidh, Asean chair and Cambodia’s commerce minister.
Commerce minister Anand Sharma said once the negotiations are over, the Asean government heads will formally make the declaration Thursday. India is hosting the India-Asean commemorative summit on December 20-21, where all 10 Asean nations’ leaders will join Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“Senior officers have been meeting, and we ministers have given them a very clear message and mandate at the recent Asean-India summit at Phnom Penh, Cambodia... Senior officials and negotiators thereafter met in Jakarta. So the final round of negotiations is taking place between senior officers of India, the chief negotiator and his team and Asean officials, and they will be formally reporting to the ministerial meeting tomorrow,” Mr Sharma said. Its implementation, however, will take at least a year. The minister added early operationalisation of the services and investment agreement would provide greater impetus to trade and investment flows.
Mr Sharma said at present trade between India and Asean stands at $80 billion, which should reach $100 billion by 2015. The minister said India viewed its partnership with Asean as a crucial block in sustaining its growth momentum. “We would like to benefit from Asean’s experience in key sectors of economy such as infrastructure, agro-processing, retail and value-added manufacturing.