|
New Delhi: India will
enter negotiations to further liberalise trade in goods, services
and investment in Asia in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh in the
next two days that are expected to bring in significant economic
benefits to the country.
Two competing visions of regional economic integration would
animate conversation at the ASEAN and East Asia summits which are
taking place amid a faltering world economy, regional tension and
great power manoeuvrings.
ASEAN leaders have pledged to create the Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership (RCEP) comprising their 10 member-nations and
six partner countries: China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia
and New Zealand.
It aims to lower trade barriers across the region to create the
biggest free-trade market on the globe and a production base that
would ensure the free movement of goods, services, investments and
skilled labour in the region by 2015.
China, which has just emerged from once-in-a-decade leadership
transition, is a strong votary of the RCEP to offset the US-led
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that excludes Beijing.
President Barack Obama is advocating the TPP as part of his
administration's "rebalancing strategy" towards Asia. The TPP also
aims to bring down trade barriers between the US and a group of
Asian countries and venture into new areas of cooperation.
"We're organising trade relations with countries other than China
so that China starts feeling more pressure about meeting basic
international standards," Obama, who won a second term in office
earlier this month, said during one of the presidential debates
with Mitt Romney.
The Trade and Economic Relations Committee (TERC) headed by Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh decided earlier this month to join the
ASEAN plus Six talks keeping in view its 20-year-old "Look East"
policy and the deadlocked Doha Round.
Sources said the government has some concern about the possible
impact of the RCEP on certain products but decided to go in to
reinforce India's determination to be a "constructive" partner in
the negotiations that are expected to remove the kinks in the
architecture of economic partnership.
India and ASEAN have a free trade agreement in goods and are
negotiating to include services and investment, widening the
agreement to a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).
India-ASEAN trade currently stands at $79 billion, surpassing the
$70 billion target set for 2012.
ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told the Asia-Europe
Business Forum in the Laotian capital Vientiane earlier this month
that the grouping needed support from its dialogue partners.
"I talked about the five FTAs that we have with the six (dialogue
partner) countries. We are now putting the five together into one
agreement," said Surin.
The prime minister is leading the Indian delegation to the 10th
ASEAN-India summit and 7th East Asia Summit ending Nov 20.
RCEP has grown out of a plan to launch trilateral trade talks
among China, Japan and South Korea and billed to be worth worth
$17 trillion.
There is however still a fair degree of scepticism about the
success of the talks as protection for sensitive goods and
geopolitical sensitivities could disrupt the negotiations.
Experts say countries might ask for special treatment for their
agricultural produce. For example, talks between Seoul and Tokyo
have been on hold since 2004 over Japan's reluctance to lower
tariffs on agricultural goods.
And South Korea is said to be separately negotiating a free trade
agreement with China, which would enable some 25,000 South Korean
firms operating in China to supply to the domestic market rather
than exporting their Chinese-produced goods as they are obliged to
do now.
Also, ASEAN Deputy Secretary General Lim Hong Hin told a business
forum in Makati city in the Philippines that 28 percent of ASEAN
Economic Community measures due to be implemented for 2008-2011
are still pending as of end-August 2012.
Experts point to poor infrastructure, lack of human resources,
good governance and low participation from the private sector as
the possible main hurdles in achieving the establishment of a
single market.
There are also concerns that the South China Sea territorial
disputes between China and Vietnam and the Philippines over the
Spratly and Parcel islands may muddy the negotiations and delay
the launch of the pact.
(Saroj Mohanty can be contacted at saroj.m@ians.in)
|
Comments
|
Quick links