Economic Times, India

India remove negative list in FTA talks: Asean

25 April 2006

PTI/NEW DELHI: India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement talks are in troubled waters with Asean insisting on New Delhi to eliminate its big list of negative items, contrary to the stand taken by the former.

Asean on its part has given a list of sensitive items on which there would be a phased tariff reduction. India on its part wants a negative list of items on which there would be no tariff reduction to protect domestic interests.

While India has given a list of 991 items in the negative list, Asean has given a country specific list (all member have separate list) of 2,900 sensitive items including 500 highly sensitive items, official sources told the agency.

New Delhi, which has always followed a negative list approach in such trade negotiations with regard to certain highly sensitive sectors, feels that sensitivities in certain sectors like agriculture, textiles needed to be protected. It has pruned its list to 991 from 1414 earlier.

Infact in agriculture, it had mooted Tariff Rate Quotas for palm oil, tea and pepper to Asean at the Trade Negotiating Committee meeting last week.

Asean, has sought clarifications on the figures and will respond to the proposal only at the next meeting of the TNC in May end.