ASEAN urges India to widen market
ASEAN urges India to widen market
BANGKOK, March 31 2007 (TNA) — In ongoing trade negotiations, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) urged India to open its import market to additional key commodities, a senior Thai Commerce Ministry official reports.
Chana Kanaratanadilok, Deputy Director-General of the Trade Negotiations Department, said that ASEAN made the request during March 20-22 negotiations in Jakarta.
Negotiations focused on a free trade agreement (FTA) in which tariffs would be eliminated on more than 4,300 classes of exports to India.
Indian officials, however, held out for keeping 490 commodities on its ’negative list’, that is, to exempt them from tariff elimination, according to Mr. Chana. The exemption would be granted by ASEAN on the condition that the value of exempted imports from any given ASEAN member must not exceed five percent of imports from that country.
India was also asked to import more rice, processed food, rubber, textiles, and automotive parts from ASEAN countries, he said. However, New Delhi officials stood firm in their refusal to lower tariffs on any additional goods, including palm oil. Both Malaysia and Indonesia had urged that the palm oil tariff be lowered below the current 50-60 percent. New Delhi also insisted that the five percent rule for its negative list of 490 commodities be calculated on ASEAN as a whole rather than from each individual country.
Both sides agreed in January to conclude FTA talks by July of this year after three years of negotiations.
Each ASEAN member has the potential of producing different kinds of goods and each hopes that the FTA will generate increased opportunities for marketing for their products in India, according to Mr. Chana.
India’s trade with ASEAN countries rose from US$9.7 thousand million in 2002-2003 to more than US$21 thousand million in 2005-2006. The sharp increase in trade value reflects India’s drive to match China’s economic presence in the ASEAN region. - E111
