India halves FTA exclusion list with Asean
Bernama | August 18, 2006
India Halves FTA Exclusion List With Asean
By P. Vijian
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 (Bernama) — In what is seen as a dramatic move, India on Friday slashed its controversial exclusion list of products for tariff reduction from 850 to 560 to kick-start the recently-suspended negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Asean.
India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry special secretary Gopal K. Pillai said besides, India was ready to offer tariff concessions for 94 per cent of Asean exports — slicing off refined palm oil tariff from 90 per cent to 60 per cent and crude palm oil from 80 per cent to 50 per cent.
Tariff on black tea is reduced from 100 per cent to 50 per cent and pepper from 70 per cent to 50 per cent.
He said India had offered an extensive list and hopes Asean members would reciprocate accordingly, but lamented the 10-member grouping had yet to respond.
"Our tariff reduction or elimination covers about 94.6 per cent of India-Asean trade.
"India offers tariff elimination for more than 4,000 tariff lines at the six digit level constituting 77 per cent of all tariff lines, and phases tariff reduction for more than 600 tariff lines (12 per cent)," Pillai told reporters after holding talks with Asean trade negotiators at the Senior Economic Officials Meeting (SEOM) here Friday. India is a dialogue partner of Asean.
He said Asean had yet to counter propose and urged the grouping to submit its list so that the FTA could be finalised quickly.
Despite the plum offer, India continues to withhold its agriculture concessions, where millions of subsistence farmers depend on the sector for their livelihood.
Pillai said India was not prepared to negotiate on agriculture with Asean at least for the next five years.
During the 11th Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said India-Asean FTA negotiations could be completed by 2007, and that would help push the trade figure to US$30 billion.
But in recent months talks soured due to the haggling over India’s exclusion list which some Asean experts described as too extreme as it included items from toilet bowls to naked dolls.
