The Hindu : Free trade framework accord likely at Phuket meeting

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 03, 2004

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Free trade framework accord likely at Phuket meeting

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, FEB. 2. The Bangladesh-India-Myanmar-Sri Lanka-Thailand Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) nations are poised to take a major step forward by agreeing to a free trade framework accord at a ministerial meeting in Phuket, Thailand, from February 7 to 8.

Highly-placed Government sources told this correspondent today that the agreement, which will cover both goods and services, is likely to be signed by Commerce Ministers.

BIMSTEC nations have thought it fit to go ahead with the free trade accord despite the fact that a summit meeting involving the heads of government was to have taken place in Phuket for giving assent to the agreement.

The summit was postponed after the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, informed his Thai counterpart, Thaksin Shinawatra, that he could not travel for the meeting on account of domestic commitments.

However, the pre-occupation with the elections is unlikely to prevent the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, and the Commerce Minister, Arun Jaitley, from travelling to Phuket for the BIMSTEC session.

The Foreign Secretary, Shashank, who is known to have a deep interest in economic diplomacy, will be part of the team. While Mr. Sinha has confirmed his travel plans a final word from Mr. Jaitley is awaited.

The sources said that senior officials would be meeting on February 5 and 6 to prepare for the ministerial meeting. They said the free trade framework negotiations had been going on for some months.

It was pointed out that the issue of counter-terrorism and cultural cooperation would also be on the agenda for the ministerial discussions. While Commerce Ministers are to meet on February 7, Foreign Ministers will hold discussions the next day.

BIMST-EC, formed in June 1997, was expected to give a boost to trade, energy and infrastructure cooperation among the member-nations. Nepal, which became an observer in 1998, is expected to join BIMST-EC, along with Bhutan, as a full member.

With this accord, India is now in the middle of a series of free trade negotiations. Apart from BIMSTEC, India has successfully pushed for a South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), which was agreed to at the Islamabad summit in January, and a framework accord with ASEAN in October 2003 to create a free trade zone by 2013.

Since 1999, the Prime Minister has personally travelled to seven out of the 10 ASEAN countries — the only nations that have not been touched so far being Myanmar, Brunei and the Philippines.

Even with Myanmar, the contacts have been intensive, with several high-level visits taking place from India to Yangon.

In the overall context of the "Look East" policy, the ASEAN and now the BIMSTEC framework agreement signal to South-East and East Asia that India is serious about free trade on a reciprocal basis.

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