New Delhi: India will liberalise its trade
with South Korea and three key Asean countries- Singapore,
Thailand and Malaysia--from Friday by slashing duties on
several products like seafood, chemicals and apparel among
others.
The country's market-opening pacts with three of the 10
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)
and South Korea will be operational from tomorrow.
The remaining seven Asean members will take a few more
months to get the India-Asean trade pact, which needs to be
"internally approved or ratified by their parliaments," an
official said.
Indian exports to Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia
accounting for over 90 per cent of the India-Asean USD
44-billion trade, would also be given easy access on about
4,000 tariff items.
Under the Indo-Korean Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreement (CEPA), which includes services, Indian
professionals from as many as 163 sectors, including IT,
English teaching, consultancy and engineering, would be
eligible for temporary visas up to one year in Korea.
Under this agreement, customs duties will also be reduced
or eliminated on as many as 93 per cent of Korea's tariff
lines which includes tyres, electrical goods, vehicle parts
and petroleum products.
"Korea has taken commitments to give favourable
considerations to Indian banks as well for opening their
branches there," he said. However, India must also reciprocate
on this front to move forward.
In fact, half of the country's USD four billion exports
to Korea would be exempted from duty right away.
India and South Korea signed the CEPA on August 7, 2009
in Seoul. The domestic industry welcomes the move saying the
agreement would help double the USD 10-billion commerce
between the two countries over the next five years.
The CEPA with Korea is the second comprehensive deal for
India after Singapore. Unlike a free trade agreement, which
covers goods only, CEPA also covers investments, services and
bilateral cooperation in other areas.
The free trade agreement with Asean was signed on August
13.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, December 31, 2009, 21:18