Amari is on an official five-day visit to India which began against the backdrop of talks on a free trade agreement in the Indian capital last week that ended with big differences.
While the 27-nation bloc is pressing hard for a significant duty cut in automobile sector in the proposed Broad based Trade and Investment Agreement, Indian industry is strongly opposed to such a move.
So far 15 rounds of negotiations have been held.
During the talks, both sides failed to reach on a conclusion and has agreed to meet again in June.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht concluded another round of talks on Monday at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, which the Commission said 'provided a renewed momentum to bring the negotiations forward'.
India was apprehensive because EU was pushing for data exclusivity provisions that would have affected domestic pharma companies.
In the past, several other Indian nationals have been named in such notifications after the Swiss FTA was approached by Indian authorities for information about those people with regard to the pending tax-related probes against them.
With India and the Asean clearing a major roadblock to a proposed free trade agreement, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to seek a broad consensus for its early implementation during the India-Asean Summit in Philippines.
Malaysia and India are expected to sign a free trade agreement during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to that country later this year.
With 47 per cent of Australians favouring Free Trade Agreement with India in a recent poll, the feasibility study by the two sides has revealed the agreement could boost Australia's GDP by AUD 45 billion in the next 20 years.
Officials from India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations would resume their talks to widen of the scope of a Free Trade Agreement with the 10-nation trading bloc to cover services and investment.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday mooted a Pan-Asian Free Trade Area, along the lines of North American Free Trade Area and the European Union, as part of efforts to make the Asian region an economic power house.
Asian Development Bank and Reserve Bank on Thursday advocated that India should go in for a free trade agreement with China and five other nations in the Mekong region to sustain high growth.
India feels that a free trade agreement with China will not work as it is not a market economy.
India and Indonesia today agreed to fast track the ongoing negotiations for early conclusion of the proposed comprehensive market opening pact, aimed at enhancing bilateral economic engagement between the countries.
A draft report prepared by Members of the European Parliament could potentially derail negotiations between India and the European Union, the country's largest trade partner, on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement involving duty-free trade of goods, services and investment. The report has called for the inclusion of human rights and democracy issues in the CEPA talks and an international investigation into "extra judicial killings" in Jammu & Kashmir.
Existing trade deals, especially the 2009 pact with the Asean bloc, have been panned by the Centre for not boosting exports but flooding the domestic market with cheap imports. Subsequently, New Delhi has called for reviewing FTAs with Japan and South Korea. Going by that, a trade deal with the US is unlikely to be beneficial, say experts.
The proposed South Asia Free Trade Agreement, which will come into effect according to the timetable set out at the SAARC summit in Islamabad, will greatly benefit the region, diplomats from the member countries said in Washington.
The implementation of the ambitious India-Asean Free Trade Agreement is likely to miss the target date of January 1, 2009. Negotiators from both the countries had closed talks this August, after six years of painstaking dialogue.
'RCEP may be in India's long-term interest, but it is certainly not in India's short-term and medium-term interest.'
India and the 10-member ASEAN grouping on Thursday announced concluding a deal for a free trade agreement that will break duty barriers for goods in the 1.5 billion people strong market.
Each member will separately sign the agreement & it will become effective only after the last member signs the pact.
Bangladesh on Thursday agreed in principle to India's proposal for a bilateral Free Trade Agreement to boost economic cooperation and solve issues relating to tariff and non-tariff barriers.\n\n
The minister said Australia would benefit greatly from this pact.
To help US, as India will be a major economy in the future.
India and South Korea commenced on Tuesday discussions on their initial offers in the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement aimed at opening their markets to each other through reduction as well as elimination of duties.
Taking India's Look East policy a step further, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday announced visa-on-arrival facility for citizens of Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines and Laos; and emphasised the need to speed up the finalisation of a free trade agreement in services and investment between India and South East Asian nations.
The US should build on the nuke deal with India by negotiating a full-fledged bilateral free trade agreement, says Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
Trade ministers of India and ASEAN countries are likely to meet in Singapore next month to work out a common ground so that the much-awaited India-ASEAN free trade agreement takes off next year.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is expected to sign a free trade agreement with India next week, Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz has said.
.jpg)
India-European Union Broad-based Trade and Investment agreement came up for discussion in a meeting between Sharma and visiting Netherlands Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Lilianne Ploumen in New Delhi.
"It will be ensured that such agreements (free trade agreements) do not have a detrimental effect on domestic manufacturing in India," according to the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP), cleared by the Union Cabinet on October 25.
"The fact that not many FTAs were sealed shows the cautious approach of the policy makers," said Ram Upendra Das, fellow, Research and Information System for Developing Countries. "But India has recognised that these duty-free agreements are the order of the day as other countries are engaging in similar deals. Indian exporters will be left out if the nation does not engage in these types of agreements with its trading partners," he added.
"We are very keen that before the year is out we should have an agreement on a comprehensive economic partnership," Dr Manmohan Singh said in an interview to a Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. The two countries had earlier failed to finalise a trade deal by mid-2008 or to achieve visible progress in time to sign it during a three-day visit by Singh to Japan which started on Tuesday, the paper said.
The drafts or rules are prepared by Directorate General of Safeguards and it is to be issued by Finance Ministry in consultation with commerce ministry. The government may impose safeguard duties, which could be as high as more than 100 per cent, after thorough investigations confirm that import surge is leading to 'serious injury, market disruption' to domestic industry.
ICT products make up a minuscule $ 407 million, out of the $ 35.54 billion of total inbound shipments from the US, as of now.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances