Negotiations to widen the Asean-India free trade agreement in the
services and investment sectors have reached a deadlock.
International Trade and Industry
Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed informed his Asean colleagues yesterday
that negotiations had been tough and faced many hurdles.
Malaysia is the coordinating
country negotiating for the Asean-India FTA on services and investment sectors
which started last year.
“Three months ago Malaysia had
told our friends in Asean that we are quite optimistic as we were told at that
time there were some flexibility and some compromises which were agreed on.
“But when we went into the
nitty-gritty, we encountered a number of hurdles. Negotiations have been tough
as we led the Asean team for several meetings. As we went along, it was obvious
to us it is going to be difficult.
“So today I reported to my
colleagues that for the moment it is not going to be possible to reach an agreement
on services and investments with India,” he told the Malaysian media after the
Asean Economic Meeting here yesterday, on the eve of the 21st Asean Summit.
Mustapa declined to reveal the
next step, adding that Asean leaders would meet their Indian counterpart this
week and again next month in New Delhi for the Asean-India Summit.
On the Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership (RCEP) between Asean and six of its dialogue partners to
be launched on Tuesday, Mustapa described it as a milestone for the grouping
which started trade liberalisation on a smaller scale with the Asean Free Trade
Area.
“From Afta, Asean moved on to
single FTA with dialogue partners and now it has gained momentum to the RCEP.
“The RCEP is an important
initiative as it improves on what we have already implemented and will benefit
Malaysia.
“The government has already
endorsed RCEP and soon we will be meeting other stakeholders including the
private sector,” Mustapa added.
Negotiations on the RCEP bet-ween
the 10-member Asean and its partners - Australia, China, India, Japan, New
Zealand and South Korea - are expected to start in February. It will be the
largest trade bloc in the world.
The RCEP is aimed at
consolidating the FTAs between Asean and its dialogue partners to ease trade
procedures and boost the flow of trade and investment within the Asia-Pacific
region.
Mustapa said trade with the RCEP
countries represented 70% of Malaysia's market, adding that it was not a threat
to the Trans Pacific Partnership of which Malaysia was also a party.
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