India-ASEAN FTA not to hit southern farmers, says Nath
Press Trust of India | 29 August 2008
India-ASEAN FTA not to hit southern farmers, says Nath
New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI) — Allaying fears of the Left-ruled Kerala that an FTA with ASEAN could harm farmers’ interest in the southern states, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath today said India cannot get isolated in the growing economies of east Asia.
"They don’t even know what the agreement is," Nath said when asked to comment on opposition from the Kerala Government for the free trade agreement (FTA) which will bring down duties on 80 per cent of trade with the 10-nation economic bloc to a mere five per cent.
Nath said coconut, spices, wheat, maize, rice, processed food and rubber are in the 288-item negative list which will remain outside the purview of the FTA.
Besides, India will maintain a Highly Sensitive List for crude palm oil (CPO), refined palm oil (RPO), black tea, pepper and coffee. "On pepper, duty will be reduced to 50 per cent by 2018," Nath said, wondering how the trade pact would harm farmers. Duties on tea and coffee would come down to 45 per cent by 2018, an official said.
India has scrapped duty on CPO while slashed it to 7.5 cent on RPO. "We have already scrapped duty on palm oil. We cannot go below zero," he said arguing it has not hit the farmers.
However, scrapping or reducing duties on ’applied basis’ leaves an option with a country to levy them again. But once a country binds duties in an agreement, the cushion is lost.
Nath said ASEAN has emerged as an important economic partner for India with bilateral trade growing to 38 billion dollars in 2007-08. This is set to grow to 50 billion dollars in just about two years in 2010.
Nath said both China and Japan have already started tapping east Asia by signing FTAs with ASEAN. "As a large country in east Asia,India cannot be isolated," he said. PTI
