India to fast-track talks to sew up ASEAN services trade pact
Economic Times | 27 January 2010
India to fast-track talks to sew up ASEAN services trade pact
Amiti Sen, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: India will try to expedite negotiations on opening up trade in services with the 10-member ASEAN at a senior officials meeting next
week in Jakarta. The feasibility of the August-end deadline for concluding the talk, which is expected to provide greater opportunity to Indian professionals to travel and work in South-East Asia, will also be judged at the meet, a government official has said.
“This will be the first meeting on services after the Free Trade Agreement in goods became operational this month,” an official, who did not wish to be named, told ET.
The ASEAN secretariat, which is compiling requests from ASEAN countries for opening up of various services sectors in India, is expected to present the requests list at the meeting beginning on February 2. India has already sent its requests to the ASEAN members.
The services negotiations are taking place on a request-offer basis, wherein both sides make requests for the openings they seek and offers are made by the receiving country based on the requests.
According to a report by industry body CII, the services part of the India-ASEAN FTA is crucial as India seeks market access for its IT, ITES, health, education and other services in ASEAN with its rapidly growing middle-class. The ASEAN market is very important for India as the region is a net importer of services and imported over $180 billion worth of services in 2008. Services sector contributes over 55% to India’s gross domestic product (GDP).
While the India-ASEAN FTA in goods — which will allow duty-free trade in more than 4,000 goods in a phased manner — is operational since the beginning of January, the agreement on services and investment is still being negotiated.
Trade ministers from India and the ASEAN countries, which include Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, had decided last year that services and investment should be made part of the bilateral agreement by August 2010. “We will get a clear idea about the feasibility of the August deadline when we meet next week and see how prepared the ASEAN countries are for speeding up the negotiations,” the official said.
India has made requests in a number of areas including teaching, nursing, architecture, chartered accountancy and medicine as it has a large number of English speaking professionals in these areas who can gain from job opportunities in the ASEAN region. India is also keen on expanding its telecom, IT, tourism and banking network in the ASEAN countries.
ASEAN countries, on the other hand, are looking at more openings in the area of tourism. The more economically advanced members like Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia are also keen on liberalisation of financial services like banking and insurance.
