The Hindu : International : ASEAN-India FTA talks slated again

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International

ASEAN-India FTA talks slated again

P.S. Suryanarayana

Scheduled to be held in Laos
Hope to complete talks by
September-end

SINGAPORE: The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)-India Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) is scheduled to hold a new round of talks in Vientiane (Laos) from September 17-19.

The talks are expected to determine whether the leaders from both sides will be able to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) at their summit in Singapore in November.

Time frame

Keeping such a time frame in focus, they had, at their last summit at Cebu in the Philippines in January, set July as the deadline to complete the prolonged negotiations.

And, when this target date was missed, it was decided to press ahead, without calling off the parleys.

ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong told The Hindu, over telephone from Kuala Lumpur that the “wide gap” that still divided the two sides, should be bridged.

The “gap” related to the ASEAN expectations about concessions from India over its tariff lines for not only palm oil but also petroleum and related products. Questions regarding “rules of origin” were also not completely settled. And, some ASEAN countries, which did not yet give India their respective “negative lists,” were now rushing to fulfil this requirement, Mr. Ong said.

Last few stages

In a telephonic comment from Manila, after officials from the two sides met there on August 26, Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai told The Hindu that the “hope” was to “conclude the negotiations before the end of Sep tember.”

The two sides had reached the “last few stages,” with 95 per cent of the ground covered, and they were moving “closer” to the proposed FTA, Mr. Pillai noted.

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