Under the proposed agreement, duties on 70-80% of the goods imported from China will be reduced or eliminated
Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held discussions on the proposed mega free-trade agreement which is being negotiated between 10 ASEAN member countries and their six trade partners.
The meeting assumes significance as it comes ahead of the last ministerial of the trade ministers of 16 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries scheduled two be held in Bangkok next week.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar, Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal and minister of state for commerce and industry Hardeep Singh Puri were also present at the meeting.
ASEAN PACT
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- RCEP is being negotiated among 10 ASEAN members and their six trade partners — Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea & New Zealand
- ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam
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Under the proposed agreement, duties on 70-80% of the goods imported from China will be reduced or eliminated.
Meanwhile, bilateral talks are still going on with China with which India has a trade deficit of over $ 50 billion.
Similarly, India may cut customs duties on 86% of imports from Australia and New Zealand, and 90% for products imported from ASEAN, Japan and South Korea, with which India already has a comprehensive free-trade agreement.
It is likely to be implemented over a period of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years. India is also negotiating with the countries for an auto-trigger mechanism.
It will allow the country to exercise the option of increasing customs duties in case there is a sudden surge in imports of a particular product, particularly from China, to protect the domestic industry.
China's President Xi Jinping is likely to visit India next week to hold the second informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The negotiations for the RCEP deal has reached a fundamental phase as the member countries are targeting to conclude the talks by November.So far, 28 rounds of talks have been held at the level of chief negotiators'.
Trade ministers' meeting next week at Bangkok is likely to be the last ministerial-level meeting. Only a few issues like rules of origin are pending for the conclusion of talks for the proposed pact.
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