ASEAN Suspend India FTA Talks

In a major blow to India's policy of having business ties with the major economies in the Southeast, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has suspended talks with New Delhi on the Free Trade Agreement, because of differences over the negative list.

A spokeswoman of Malaysia's Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz in Kuala Lumpur said, the talks on the India-ASEAN trade agreement have been halted since India wanted a big negative list of 850 items.

According to sources, the problem arose because of India's insistence on including agricultural items like palm oil in the negative list. While these items can hurt the Indian interest, for many of the ASEAN nations, any FTA without these goods have no meaning.

India has already signed an FTA with Singapore and was betting on another one with ASEAN, especially in the backdrop of the deadlock in the WTO talks.

 ASEAN groups include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Big blow for Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.