ASEAN FTA with India likely to be delayed again
Bernama | 11 August 2009
ASEAN FT with India likely to be delayed again
BANGKOK, Aug 11 (Bernama) — Economic ministers from the 10 Southeast Asian countries will sign the Asean-China Investment Agreement during the 41st Asean Economic Ministers (AEM) here this week, but the long-delayed free trade pact with India is likely to be postponed again.
Nuntawan Sakuntanaga, director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department, Thai Commerce Ministry, said all negotiations with India have been completed but the country has to sort out some problems with the proposed documents before signing it.
"We are not sure if the ministers will be able to sign the FTA with India as scheduled (Aug 13). If not, we hope to sign it at the 15th Asean Summit in October," she told a press conference here Monday.
The FTA was initially planned to be signed December last year during the 14th Asean Summit which was postponed. In February, India deferred it as it wanted to renegotiate the schedule for tariff cuts.
Both Asean and India is expected to start the first round of tariff reductions in February 2010, instead of the original schedule of January this year.
The investment agreement with China, Asean’s fourth largest trading partner, will be signed on Saturday. In 2008, bilateral trade between China and Asean totalled US$231.1 billion, up 14 percent from 2007.
Nuntawan also said that the economic ministers would also study prospects of similar FTA with other dialogue partners.
"The ministers will talk about FTA between Asean+3 and Asean+6 members...
which one is possible, which is easier and which is better," she said.
The four-day meeting will also discuss each members’ readiness towards the Asean Economy Community by 2015, as well as the future direction after 2015, said Nuntawan.
Besides that, she said the AEM was also expected to touch on regional cooperation to tackle the current economic crisis, climate change and impact of the Influenza A H1N1.
With 582 million population, Asean has a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$1.282 trillion, with total trade of US$1.616 trillion in 2007.
