The FTA talks between India and ASEAN could not move ahead as
India was unwilling to include those sensitive products that ASEAN
is interested in, a Malaysian official said in Kuala Lumpur on
Friday.
Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz
made the remarks during her inspection over facilities at a hotel,
the venue for the 38th ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) meeting.
India's offer of hundreds of sensitive products for tariff
elimination or phased reduction was not enough, Rafidah said when
she was asked to comment on the so-called current standstill on FTA
talks between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN).
India should minimize the sensitive list to move the talks
ahead, she added.
India offered dramatic tariff concessions for ASEAN products
earlier Friday in a bid to conclude a Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
early with the regional grouping.
Senior officials from India, who were attending a consultation
meeting here with their ASEAN counterparts, tabled a list of over
4,000 tariff lines for tariff elimination, or 77 percent of the
total tariff lines.
They also presented a list of more than 600 tariff lines for
phased tariff reduction, or 12 percent of the total, but they only
offered moderate tariff reductions on such commodities as palm oil,
black tea and pepper.
India hopes the India-ASEAN FTA negotiations could be completed
by 2007, but Indian officials here said that their country would
not be prepared to negotiate on agriculture with ASEAN at least in
the next five years.
(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2006)
