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Low tariff regime needed to increase India-ASEAN trade
Agencies, New Delhi
The government has said two-way trade between India and ASEAN had the potential
to more than double to US$ 30 billion in the next three years, but there was
need to quickly put in place low tariff regime to ensure that it did not become
a hinderance.
“The two-way trade between India and the ASEAN countries has reached US$
12.5 billion. It is our expectation that this number could go up to US$ 30 billion
in the next three years,” Mr R M Abhyankar, secretary for Asia and North
Africa, ministry of external affairs said, addressing a session at CII-WEF organised
India Economic Summit 2003 here.
He said that free trade agreement, which has been signed with Thailand and closer
economic cooperation agreement with Singapore, which is to be finalised, would
help achieve this target. “So far as India-ASEAN trade is concerned, we
have the early harvest schemes both in the Thailand FTA and in the India-ASEAN
FTA. The need is to quickly get these in place across a broad front so that
tariffs and non-tariff considerations do not become a hindrance to meet our
trade targets,” he said.
“Under the framework agreement for closer economic cooperation signed between
India and ASEAN, an early harvest will commence from January 1, 2004. It has
a differential pace for ASEAN-5, and Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam (CMLV)
countries. It will be accomplished by 2011 for the ASEAN-5 and 2016 for all,”
he said.
Mr Abhyankar said ASEAN accounted for only 6.2 per cent of foreign direct investment
(FDI) approvals. “ASEAN FDI approvals are around US$ 4.15 billion mainly
from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia”, he said
adding that the actual FDI inflow was substantially less. “There is a need
to close the gap between the approved and the delivered levels of investments,”
he said. Moreover, the investments were concentrated around sectors such as
power and refining, telecom and electrical equipment.
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