The Hindu Reports

Co-Chairperson of the ASEAN-India Trade Negotiating Committee, Rebecca, later told The Hindu over telephone that nine members of the 10-nation regional trade bloc signed the pact. Vietnam would do so after its formal recognition by India as a “market economy.”

India and Vietnam, according to Dr. Rebecca, had already agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding on this issue.

The implementation of the FTA would, therefore, take off from January 1 next year, as now agreed upon, she emphasised.

Dr. Rebecca said the ASEAN would now seek a “fast-track” approach for talks with India for a “single” follow-up accord on liberalising the two-way flow of services and investments. The “hope” was to finalise the deal in about a year’s time. The ASEAN’s expectation was that the agreed tariff cuts under the FTA, as now signed, would be fully implemented by the end of 2013 and 2016 in respect of two “normal tracks.” A timeline had also been agreed upon for the “sensitive list” of items, she said.