ASEAN-India FTA, to eliminate duty on 80% of traded goods

14 Aug '09

4 min read

Earlier, during the day, Mr. Anand Sharma called on the Prime Minister of Thailand Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva. He also held discussions with the Minister of Commerce, Ms. Porntiva Nakasai and the Minister of Industry, Mr. Charnchai Chairungrueng in separate meetings. The meetings focused on ways to further strengthen bilateral trade and investment linkages. He invited Ms. Porntiva Nakasai to attend the Informal Ministerial Meeting on the Doha Round of WTO to be held in New Delhi on September 3-4, 2009.

Shri Anand Sharma also held substantive bilateral discussions with his counterpart Indonesian trade minister Mari Pangetsu. He invited her to attend the forthcoming WTO ministerial meeting to be held in New Delhi on 3-4 September. He also met the Singapore Trade Minister Lim Hng Kiang and the two ministers discussed a range of bilateral economic relations.

India-ASEAN trade was around US$ 40 billion during 2007-08 making ASEAN the 4th largest trading partner of India (after EU, US and China). The India-ASEAN trade has grown rapidly in recent years (27% CAGR since 2000). The signing of the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement will give a further impetus to the trade and investment linkages between India and ASEAN. India and ASEAN are currently negotiating Agreements on Trade in Services and Investment, which are to be concluded by December 2009. India looks forward to access the vast services market of ASEAN. India's total trade in services was US $ 137.50 billion in 2006. The corresponding figure for ASEAN is US$ 280.90 billion. Similarly, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attracted by India in 2007-08 was US $ 24.60 billion whereas ASEAN member countries attracted FDI totaling US $ 60.50 billion in the year 2007.

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