FTA/CEPA/Trade Pacts

[Pintu]

http://www.ptinews.com/news/242324_India-and-Nepal-agree-for-a-new-trade-treaty

India and Nepal agree for a new trade treaty

STAFF WRITER 11:57 HRS IST

New Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) India and Nepal Saturday reached a new trade treaty and an agreement to control unauthorised trade, particularly from a third country, aimed at widening the bilateral economic engagement.

The trade treaty, which has been negotiated for the last two years, aims at enlarging the scope of the existing institutional framework, under which India gives duty-free access to its market to goods manufactured in Nepal.

However, the trade treaty and the agreement to control unauthorised trade would be formally signed later, an official said.

The agreements were initialled by Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar and Nepalese Secretary of Commerce and Supplies Purushottam Ojha here.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and Nepalese Minister of Commerce and Supplies Rajendra Mahto were also present on the occasion.

The new pacts will replace the existing arrangements since 1991, extended from time to time.

 

[thakur_ritesh]

the nepali pm has had his hands full after the recently concluded india visit with the kind of investments india has committed of making in that country and all these commitments are coming after a long time from india's end. investments to the tune of 500m usd have been announced and with this india has shown sings of quite a transformation of how it is going to use its economic might as a way of furthering its foreign policy something we have been unknown to do in the past.

it all started aggressively with a'stan to counter the influence of p'stan and to work on our image as a friend and to be seen working for the betterment for the lives of average afganis, same got replicated in africa when we hosted an indo-africa summit in 2008 and where some big investment plans were unvield on governments part the benefits of which we are seeing now where indian private sector is expected to make 10s of billions of dollars of investments in that continent but this came post a similar summit the prc held, and now with the prc trying to get in our backyard the same seems to be replicated in our neighbo.rhood.

all this seems to be a reactionary ploy than a proactive one, may be we need to introspect a little on how we can get a little proactive and a perfect case in point is b'desh and one would very keenly follow on how india comes up with a concrete plan for that country when we have a friendly government in power in that country.

 

[ppgj]

India-ASEAN free trade pact comes into effect

01 January 2010

An Asian free-trade agreement between India and three key countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia as also a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with South Korea came into effect today.

Under the FTA, the parties will slash import duties on several products like seafood, chemicals and apparels among others.

China has also concluded a free-trade agreement with the ASEAN, which comes into effect today.

India and the ASEAN signed a free-trade agreement in August 2009, aimed at breaking duty barriers on goods traded. However, only Malaysia has ratified the agreement so far.

The FTA would result in elimination of tariffs on more than 4,000 products, ranging from electronic goods and textiles to chemicals and capital goods over six years.

Bilateral trade between India and the 10-member ASEAN now stands at $48 billion annually.

Other ASEAN countries such as Brunei, Thailand and Singapore are expected to ratify the pact soon.

India has, meanwhile, lined up a series of meetings with the ASEAN members over the next seven months to reach a deal on opening up services trade, after signing an agreement to liberalise merchandise commerce.

Negotiators are expected to meet in New Delhi from January 12 to 16 to take forward the talks on services trade, a senior commerce ministry official said, adding that more interactions are scheduled for March, April, May and July.

So far, two rounds of negotiations have already taken place in this regard.

ASEAN-China FTA

The FTA between China and the ASEAN also kicked off today, creating the world's largest free trade area embracing developing countries. The China-ASEAN FTA covers a population of 1.9 billion and involves about $4.5 trillion of trade volume.

The trade pact is expected to boost bilateral trade by $106 billion by lifting tariffs on some 7,000 items, 90 per cent of all traded commodities.

China, which is likely to overtake Japan as the world's second largest economy this year, and six founding ASEAN members such as Singapore and Thailand eliminated tariffs on about 90 per cent of products.

Four other members such as Vietnam will gradually lower tariffs down to zero in 2015.

Bilateral trade between China and the 10 ASEAN members grew from some $100 billion in 2004 to $231 billion last year, averaging a 14 per cent annual growth rate.

ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said the FTA would benefit both sides, given the rising purchase power of their growing middle class populations, reported the Xinhua news agency.

"Middle class of China is expanding, which will be good for ASEAN products. Middle class of ASEAN is growing, expanding, which will be good for Chinese export and Chinese services," Xinhua quoted Surin as saying.

domain-b.com : India-ASEAN free trade pact comes into effect

 

[LETHALFORCE]

India-Japan FTA - News and Discussions.

India-Japan FTA talks to focus on services sector professionals

http://www.financialexpress.com/new...ocus-on-services-sector-professionals/620129/

New Delhi: India and Japan are going to re-open discussions on liberalisation of movement of professionals, an issue that has long stalled any significant progress in the conclusion of the free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.

A delegation of trade officials from Tokyo are going to visit the capital on Tuesday and would hold discussions with their Indian counterparts on services. On top of India's agenda would be the demand to allow Indian working professionals like doctors, nurses, lawyers and engineers to practice in Japan. Known as the mode 4 in trade parlance, India has been pushing for its liberalisation with every country with whom India is negotiating a trade agreement. So far only Singapore and South Korea have allowed Indian professionals to work in their countries albeit with caveats.

According to a commerce ministry official, who did not wish to be named, Japan has shown interest in allowing Indian working professionals. "We have shown Japan that so far in India mode 4 is largely liberalised"¦we hope that they allow Indians as well to practice there," he said.

On Tuesday India would also be pushing for liberalisation in mode 1 i.e. outsourcing, an area that has not been opened up by Japan either. "India's strength lies in its services sector and any opening up of this area is going to benefit the domestic IT industry to a large extent," a government source added.

Head of trade policy at industry chamber CII Pritam Banerjee said that owing to the language difficulties in Japan, it has not emerged as an important IT destination for Indian exports. But he said if any breakthrough is achieved in the FTA it could open up a world of opportunity for India. "Mode 4 (movement of professionals) is the key for India. If it gets approved then not only will movement of professionals become far easier but India would be able to push its IT exports as well in that part of the world," he said. Banerjee was referring to how a large chunk of Japanese companies would want to outsource work to India to cut costs and improve efficiency if mode 1 and 4 is liberalised.

He also said that India should push for liberalisation of the movement of nurses owing to the vast ageing potential of Japan. "This holds a big potential for India"¦currently Japan has an agreement with Indonesia for movement of nurses," Banerjee said. India and...

 

[nrj]

India and E.U. FTA: Efforts Accelerated to Clinch Trade Deal

With global world trade negotiations stalled, India and the European Union are pressing to complete a bilateral free trade agreement in the autumn that is intended to triple their €53 billion trade flow within five years.

After nine rounds of negotiations, India and the European Union are closing in on such a free trade agreement, Anand Sharma, the Indian minister of commerce and industry, said in an interview. Mr. Sharma said that he would meet with the European trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht, in September and that "we hope that both of us will be able to reach an agreement."

Both sides are aiming for a framework agreement in time for an E.U.-India summit meeting in Brussels, scheduled for October.

The European Union and India started their trade negotiations in 2007, but talks initially made only slow progress. Given the impasse in the Doha world trade talks, however, countries have renewed their focus on bilateral deals as a less ambitious but useful proxy for increasing trade flows. The European Union signed separate free trade agreements last month with a group of Central American countries, as well as Peru and Colombia.

Mr. Sharma was speaking on the sidelines of an India business conference in Madrid sponsored by Horasis, a global networking group based in Geneva.

His speech coincided with the start of a visit to India by Catherine Ashton, the European Union's new foreign policy chief, also designed to prepare the ground for the E.U.-India summit meeting in Brussels.

"The willingness is definitely there, and both sides are now putting a lot of effort into completing the work on the remaining issues so that the E.U.-India summit in the autumn can give the final push for concluding this deal, which we do think is possible," said John Clancy, an E.U. trade spokesman.

"We won't reach a multilateral agreement this year, but the E.U.-India bilateral agreement is much advanced," Rajan Bharti Mittal, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said at the Madrid conference. Such an agreement, he added, would be "beneficial to both sides."

European companies are increasing their presence in emerging markets like India in part to offset sluggish domestic growth. That is also true for Spanish companies that have traditionally focused on former Latin American colonies rather than Asia.

"If an industrial group thinks that it doesn't have to be in India, it's making a real, strategic mistake," said Germán Lorenzo, the Asia-Pacific managing director of Mondragón, a Spanish conglomerate that recently bought land in India to start producing tool machinery and automotive components there. "Our domestic market is shrinking so our boys have to go for Asia, particularly India."

Silvia Iranzo, the Spanish secretary for trade, conceded that her country's trade and investment exchanges with India had so far "not been at the height of our economic scale."

She added: "Spain is going through economic difficulties so we are putting in place policies of internationalization to help our companies overcome the crisis, and these policies inevitably involve India."

India is expected to spend as much as $50 billion in the coming five years to modernize its outdated military equipment, but barriers to foreign investment in this sector were underlined recently when the Indian government blocked a defense electronics joint venture between European Aeronautic Defense & Space, and Larsen & Toubro, an Indian engineering company, amid concerns that EADS would breach the 26 percent equity ownership limit for foreign investors in the sector.

But Thomas Homberg, vice president of EADS, insisted Tuesday that "definitely we haven't given up" on the joint venture. Encountering such hurdles in the "sensitive field" of defense did not preclude EADS developing commercial aircraft manufacturing activities in India, as EADS has done in China by setting up an Airbus assembly line. "I would not say that this is impossible in India, not at all," he said.

European and other foreign investors also want India to loosen foreign ownership curbs in sectors like insurance and retail. Other European concerns range from India's manufacturing of counterfeit drugs, to its unwillingness to include procurement in a trade deal. Among outstanding issues for India, meanwhile, is greater access to the European Union's highly subsidized agricultural market, which also proved a major obstacle in the Doha talks.

India also wants to make it easier for its engineers and other staff to work temporarily in Europe.

"Our pace of liberalization has been much faster than in many other countries, including some European ones that follow the market economy model," Mr. Sharma said.

The euro's recent slump against the U.S. dollar and other currencies is expected to benefit European exporters, traditionally led by German companies. Asked whether the euro's decline could also influence the pace of Indian corporate investment in Europe, Mr. Sharma said that "I don't think these decisions are taken because of currency fluctuations."

Source

 

[nrj]

EU-India: Free Trade Agreement to be signed by the end of 2010 say MEPs

Disappointed with the slow pace of negotiations, MEPs would like to see a Free Trade Agreement signed with India by the end of 2010, in a report adopted in Strasbourg by the European Parliament. The EU and India launched negotiations for an FTA in 2007. The report was adopted with 326 votes in favour, 226 against and 3 abstentions.

The report drafted by Sajjad KARIM (EPP-ED, UK) calls for a conclusion of an FTA between the EU and India which would improve market access for goods and services, covering substantially all trade except for public procurement which India is not willing to include in the FTA. Bilateral trade is expected to exceed €70.7 billion by 2010 and €160.6 billion by 2015.

MEPs point to the potential for an increase in EU-India trade and investment and business opportunities arising from the FTA but recommends that an evaluation be carried out of the existing sector-specificities. India's average applied tariff which is now 14.5% compared to an EU average of 4.1%.

The agreement should also ensure that increasing bilateral trade brings benefits to the widest number of people, including Dalits and Adivasis, and contributes to India's achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, including preventing environmental degradation.

The report welcomes the outcome of the 9th EU-India Summit and the revised Joint Action Plan; notably the signing of the horizontal civil aviation agreement, and the approval of a joint working programme on energy, clean development and climate change.

India is concerned about the lack of harmonisation of micro-biological standards in the EU, implications of REACH, costly certificates for exporting fruit to the EU and costly conformity procedures for the EC mark, says the report.

Service liberalisation must in no way hinder the right to regulate services, including public services. Services are the fastest growing sector of the Indian economy. Bilateral trade in services is expected to exceed € 246.8 billion by 2015 by the time the FTA in Services is implemented, according to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Access to medicines

MEPs call on the European Union and India to ensure that commitments under the FTA do not preclude access to essential medicines whilst India is developing its capacity from a generic to a research based industry.

MEPs welcome India's commitment to a strong IPR regime and to the use of TRIPS flexibilities to meet its public health obligations, particularly in relation to access to medicines. India is one of the major sources of counterfeit medicines seized by the customs services of the Member States (accounting for 30% of the total).

The full ambition of the FTA cannot be achieved without commitments in Mode 4, according to European Parliament. MEPs stress that there are benefits from nationwide and EU-wide accreditation of professional qualifications and agreements on mutual recognition and licensing requirements within professional services in both the EU and India.

Parliament also requests from India a more open approach in granting visas to citizens and business professionals and politicians from the European Union with multiple entries and minimum one year duration.

MEPs ask the Commission to address the issue of child labour during the negotiations on the FTA. India is also asked to ratify and implement the basic conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The issue of bonded labour should also be addressed.

A provision in the FTA should ensure that EU companies making use of Special Economic Zones cannot be exempted from respecting fundamental labour rights.

MEPs call on India to sign the Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT).


Source

 

[AkhandBharat]

Is signing NPT a precursor to this deal? If so, EU can forget about any FTA being signed by India.

 

[nrj]

Is signing NPT a precursor to this deal? If so, EU can forget about any FTA being signed by India.

India will not sign NPT any soon. It might in future as Weapon state. EU is requesting NPT sign for this agreement & might even call to join anti-Iran sanctions club but it ain't happening.

EU is facing more & more economic problems every day, so just another 6-8 months & EU will need Indian FTA more than India.

 

[ajtr]

Pakistan voices concern over India-EU FTA

Now whats the khujli pakistan has if india signs FTA with EU???

Pakistan voices concern over India-EU FTA​

NAVEED BUTT
ISLAMABAD (July 25 2010): Pakistan has expressed serious concern over the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU), which what it said, may affect 78.7 percent of Pak exports to the EU. According to the documents available with Business Recorder, the government has shown serious concern over the EU's on-going FTA negotiations particularly with India, which would affect Pakistan's market access to the EU.

The government has conveyed its concerns to the European Commission's (EC) Pak-EC Sub-Group on Trade, constituted under the Third Generation Co-operation Agreement. The sub-group conducted a study on the impact of the EU trade policies on Pakistan's market access to the EU which revealed that Pakistan could be affected, particularly its industries, by changes in preference margins as a result of EU FTAs and there may be long-term effects on Pakistan in terms of foreign direct investment and services, which can affect the attractiveness of doing business with Pakistan.

It is also said, "An easing of rules of origin in EU-India FTA can have major consequences for the Pakistani textile exporters. However, the key issue is the actual tariff preferences that India may get in the FTA." A study commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat on EU-India FTA also confirmed that the country most likely to be affected by this FTA will be Pakistan since 78.7 percent of its exports to the EU will face increased competition from India.

Now, Pakistan is willing to consider undertaking deeper integration in FTA with the EU, which includes liberalisation in goods, services, investment, government procurement and intellectual property rights as per the EU's standards and requirements. However, the EU, in principal, needs to agree to enter FTA dialogue with Pakistan.

 

[ajtr]

'Unprepared' Pak fails miserably to break ice with EU in Brussels meet: Karim​

Tue Jun 08 2010 16:58:21 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) by ANI ( Leave a comment )


Brussels (Belgium): A Pakistani national Member of the European Parliament, Sajjad Karim, has said that the talks held between Pakistan and European Union (EU) failed to meet expectations.

"I am very sorry to unveil that Pakistan has failed on many fronts during dialogue with EU because of poor homework and owing to failure in meeting responsibilities," The News quoted Karim, as having told Geo News.

He further said that such meetings need months of preparations, but Pakistani delegates spent a day or a week for the important event.

"No sincere efforts were seen for the talks from Pakistani side, besides this, neither did Pakistan complete homework to effectively work with European ministers," Karim said.

During the meeting, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani reportedly discussed the need to build a stronger partnership with EU to bring about political and economic stability in the South Asian region.

Gilani met European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek and heads of parliamentary committees.

The Prime Minister informed the EU lawmakers about the measures taken by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government to protect the rights of women and minorities.

Gilani stated that Pakistan has suffered a lot as being the front line state in the war against terror, and said that a greater market access to the EU would help Pakistan rebuild its economy.

He also invited the EU president and lawmakers to visit Pakistan. (ANI)

 

[Agantrope]

I can only post this image as what the statement by pakistan

:angry_1:

 

[nitesh]

However, the EU, in principal, needs to agree to enter FTA dialogue with Pakistan.

They can't understand denail don't they

Picture is good one

 

[S.A.T.A]

Pakistan has expressed serious concern over the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU), which what it said, may affect 78.7 percent of Pak exports to the EU

As the worlds largest exporter of international terrorism,Pakistan's no 1 export was never under any threat from India.Pakistanis can be rest assured... oh yeah.

 

[bhramos]

I can only post this image as what the statement by pakistan

:angry_1:

good situational comedy pic.
It can also be said that its a jealous gal like this.

 

[bhramos]

As the worlds largest exporter of international terrorism,Pakistan's no 1 export was never under any threat from India.Pakistanis can be rest assured... oh yeah.

do you know, Pakistan is largest exporter of Rice to EU, Then Largest operator of Indian Restaurants in UK...... and so many.

 

[Oracle]

Nice to know we are playing our cards well and giving cry babies reasons galore to continue crying. Keep up the good work Pakistan.

 

[Illusive]

Nice to know we are playing our cards well and giving cry babies reasons galore to continue crying. Keep up the good work Pakistan.

But still those fools won't realize that having good relations with India would make them more good , its their foolishness that they are today in such a mess . man I fell for the people there.

 

[nrj]

India-EU FTA talks begin in Brussels next month

India and the 27-nation economic bloc of European Union (EU) would resume negotiations next month for having a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA). Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht are also expected to have an informal meeting during the same time. This is part of an effort to boost bilateral trade.

So far, there have been nine rounds of negotiations between India and the EU for a broad-based trade treaty on goods and services. Earlier this year, during EU trade commissioner's visit, both ministers had vowed to close the deal by October.

"We hope we will keep that date," said Daniele Smadja, head of the EU delegation to India, while addressing the Indian industry at Ficci. She said a series of meetings between the chief negotiators would take place in the last week of August.

Talks to initiate a broad-based FTA with EU began in June 2007. Since then, several differences have mired the process of negotiations over EU's insistence on including social issues such as human rights, labour policies and climate change within the purview of FTA.

Besides discussions on trade and investment, the negotiations would also take up issues concerning services, intellectual property rights, competition policy, government procurement and geographical indications, among others. The Indian industry has demanded for non-trade issues to be kept outside the FTA.

A stock-taking meeting on the FTA was held in New Delhi in May between the EU director-general for trade David O'Sullivan and commerce secretary Rahul Khullar.

Stressing on the need for greater investment from India, the EU today said that conclusion of the FTA between the EU and India would ensure more engagement from both sides.

"Concluding the FTA negotiations will send a clear signal of engagement on both sides. It would boost both trade and investment between EU and India. We need to seize the opportunity, a one in a lifetime for both of us," Smadja said, adding the negotiations for having the trade deal are likely to be wrapped up this year.

She said under the Lisbon Treaty ratified last year, the investment policy in the EU would be developed and managed at the European level, giving greater negotiating power to EU to deliver better investment protection for European businesses.

The EU is India's largest trading partner with a trade volume of $80.6 billion, accounting for 21 per cent of the country's exports and 16 per cent of imports.

Last year, during the Tenth India-EU Summit, both sides vowed to take bilateral trade to $200 billion within the next three years. However, the target seem far-fetched as several contentious issues continue to hamper trading relations between the two, particularly seizure of Indian generic drugs transiting through European ports meant for third-world countries.

Source

 

[nrj]

Indo-EU FTA can generate 2.5 mn jobs in Indian economy

Mr. Udani also urged the government for a faster implementation of the Indo-EU FTA. This FTA's has a potential of increasing India's textiles and clothing exports to the European Union by over 3 billion dollar. It will also create an additional 2.5 million jobs in our economy.

Mr. Udani welcomed the government's initiatives in the skilled development area. The ready made garment industry is the second largest employer, after agriculture in the country.

Recently the Government of India through its skilled development initiatives is seeking to fund the ATDC (Apparel Trading & Design Centers) initiatives of AEPC to develop skilled man power for this sector.

Currently the apparel sector employs 6 million people directly and 3 million people indirectly. 50% of the work force is women. With the right government policies, this sector has the capacity to absorb another 5 million workers directly within the next 3 years.

Source

 

[Rage]

- One thing to be mindful of while considering this free trade agreement, is that the agreement not only covers trade in goods and services, but also rules pertaining to intellectual property rights, cross-border investments, competition policy, government procurement and regulatory issues.

- What's good about this is that the EU, as a bloc, accounts for about 21% of India's total trade value. The agreement will pick up trade and double it within three years.

- The EU is a key foreign investor in transport infrastructure in the region- we can see that in the Bombardier trains on the metros and the Volvo buses on the streets to the German investment in real estate. We all know why that is so necessary.

- Interestingly, India leads the region with 32 FTA's, while China and Singapore come in with 26 each. What is needed for the full-potential exploitation of these agreements, however, is the liberalization of trade and investment, particularly in marketing and financial services.

- What the EU is seeking is complete market access (commercial presence, cross-border supply and consumption) and national treatment commitments, together with the removal of regulations for bank branches, equity cielings, quotas on banking boards and the like. But while the EU may seek all these, it is imperative that we seek equal access for our producers in the agricultural market, particularly in a European agricultural market where their producers are heavily subsidised and foreign produce tarrifed.

- The European banks in general, and their financial services houses in particular, are interested in serving three niche sectors: up-market consumer retail finance; wealth management services and investment banking. We have to be careful, while we allow them to to exploit these lucrative opportunities, we don't allow them to do so without reciprocal gains in fields where we're competitive: including automotive, auto-making, chemicals and pharmaceutical manufacturing, health services, business process outsourcing, profession-based services and the like.

- The final point I'd like to make is that of non-trade barriers, hamperers to investment, the free mobility of goods and people between both continents, and environmental regulation. The French company Lafarge was recently granted a permit to mine in the North East by the Environment Ministry. The Supreme Court overturned that decision when they found out that the company had misrepresented its position in its documents. Such playoffs don't exactly help the purpose.​

There are also countervailing concerns like these:

http://www.epha.org/a/3987

which I believe should also be addressed.