Taiwan, India explore feasibility of FTA
CNA | 2011/03/08
Taiwan, India explore feasibility of FTA
New Delhi, March 8 (CNA) — India and Taiwan have begun work on a feasibility study to pave the way for the opening of formal talks on a free trade agreement (FTA), India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said Monday.
The announcement represented further progress in Taiwan’s efforts to sign FTAs with its trade partners. A similar process was launched between Taiwan and Singapore last August — two months after the signing of the Taiwan-China Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement.
Rao told a delegation of Taiwanese journalists that Taiwan’s Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research and the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations are jointly assessing the possibility of a Taiwan-India FTA.
The two sides will await the outcome of the study before deciding when to begin FTA negotiations, Rao said.
Gautam Bambawale, joint secretary for East Asia in India’s Ministry of External Affairs, predicted that the feasibility study would take one year.
He said India and Taiwan have already signed an investment promotion and protection agreement and are expected to seal three more deals on double taxation avoidance, temporary duty-free admission of goods, and customs cooperation within the next two to three months. (By Ho Horn-ru and Y.F. Low)
