SINGAPORE: India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have averted a looming crisis in their difficult trade talks and agreed to stay the dialogue course.

This was indicated by Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong in separate phone-in interviews to The Hindu from Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

Special Secretary G. K. Pillai, High Commissioner R. L. Narayan, and Joint Secretary P. K. Dash were members of the delegation headed by Mr. Kamal Nath, while Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz led the ASEAN side.

Mr. Kamal Nath said the two sides were now "on the way to a resolution" of the issues that centred on the size and scope of India's "sensitive list" for tariff concessions. Noting that India had brought down the number of these items to 560 from over 1,500 and that the 10-member ASEAN had packaged a list of over 19,000 sensitive products as at present, he said "this has to be negotiated" in a "correct perspective" about the relative importance of these two markets to each other.

Free trade area

Mr. Ong said the ASEAN now felt "there is good reason for restoring negotiations" with India following the latest round of "robust exchanges" that the Ministers had "in a very professional way."

The Malaysian Co-Chair of the ASEAN-India Trade Negotiating Committee had earlier cited India's alleged "intransigence" and wanted to "suspend" the talks altogether.

Asked whether India could even now follow the South Korean precedent of negotiating a trade deal with the ASEAN minus one or more of its members, Mr. Ong said the Framework Agreement, under which New Delhi began the ongoing talks, had stipulated that any accord would cover all the 10 nations of the association.

The Commerce Minister also emphasised that there was no move for an accord with the ASEAN minus any of its members with whom India was not on the same wavelength. Mr. Kamal Nath said "India welcomes and supports" the Japanese proposal for studying the feasibility of creating a wider East Asian free trade area. Japan's initiative, floated during the latest consultations in Kuala Lumpur among the Ministers of the forum of East Asia Summit (EAS), would cover not only the ASEAN but also India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.

Mr. Ong said the EAS Ministers had so far "agreed to the general principle" that a study be made to determine the pros and cons of the Japanese proposal. China, he said, "chose to be very diplomatic" in its response.

While not rejecting the idea, China sounded a note of "caution" about the mega project. South Korea felt the proposal "goes far beyond" the current thinking.

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