China-India
China and India, the two giants of Asia, have been talking (unconvincingly) of the possibility of a bilateral free trade agreement for several years. A feasibility study was completed in October 2008, but there is much opposition from India’s business sector as well as many other political complications that are likely to keep the idea on a very low flame for a while.
last update: May 2012
China wants to have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India to boost two-way trade between both countries, Chinese Consul General Ma Zhanwu said.
Trade talks between India and China remained deadlocked with neither side willing to offer concessions to end the impasse, official sources said.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang today offered Indian goods more access to his country’s market for narrowing bilateral trade deficit and expressed willingness to start talks for a free trade agreement with India.
The first visit of a major Chinese leader in more than four years has yielded a bland joint communiqué skirting core Indian concerns but incorporating a commitment to rapidly expand a lopsided trade relationship that has already turned India into the raw-material appendage of a neo-colonial Chinese economy.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao faces a tough task when he arrives in India next week to allay New Delhi’s fears over China’s rise as a global power , and to smooth tensions in an often fractious relationship.
An estimated 78 percent of Taiwanese still did not understand what the planned Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with China was about, an opposition Democratic Progressive Party poll showed yesterday.
China has offered to accelerate talks with India aimed at negotiating a bilateral trade agreement in a bid to balance a burgeoning commercial relationship between two of Asia’s largest economies that is now heavily skewed in Beijing’s favour.
Earlier this year, Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Stockwell Day, and Mr. Kamal Nath, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, jointly announced the agreement of both countries to initiate exploratory discussions aimed at creating a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA).
India and China have completed a feasibility study on their proposed Free Trade Agreement. It now awaits the approval of the leadership of the two countries.
India will hold discussion on Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Canada during Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath’s visit to that country next month.
