FTA must cover at least 90 percent of trade: Asean Sec-Gen
Bernama.com
Malaysian National News Agency
FTA Must Cover At Least 90 Percent Of Trade: Asean Sec-Gen
December 14, 2005
By P. Vijian
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 (Bernama) — A quality free trade agreement (FTA) between countries should cover 90 to 95 per cent of their trade, Asean Secretary General Ong Keng Yong said Wednesday, adding that India’s long exclusion list of products hampered such a pact with Asean.
"It (India’s list) covers only 70 per cent of the trade and this is not very good," he told Bernama after the one-day inaugural East Asia Summit (EAS) here today.
"We are surprised at the long list of 1,414 goods. I don’t know whether it is a strategy but, on our side, we were taken aback by the amount of things to be excluded," Ong said.
India, which is negotiating with Asean, wants to implement the FTA on Jan 1, 2007 and had put up the long list of goods which included naked and dressed dolls, toilet seats and covers, and chewing gum.
"We wanted to conclude (the FTA) at this (Asean-India) summit but could not. We will continue our negotiations," Ong said. Asean held its fourth summit with India yesterday, during the 11th Asean Summit hosted by Kuala Lumpur.
Last week, Indian Minister of Commerce and Trade Kamal Nath said his government had been confident of concluding the FTA at the summit in Kuala Lumpur, after long negotiations at the Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Vientiane, Laos, last September.
India is eager to link the 10 Asean economies with its growing trade, and wants to expand bilateral trade to tip US$30 billion (US$1 = RM3.77) by 2007.
Negotiations between Indian and Asean officials are expected to resume in January but any hiccup could further delay the implementation of the FTA.
