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Published on December 11, 2007

"An FTA between India and China is being considered," Ramesh said, reply-ing to questions in the house.

However, the decision to enter into agreements that liberalise trade in

certain identified commodities would be taken after a great deal of con-sideration, he added.

India has FTAs with five countries and six operational preferential-trade agreements. In addition, 11 FTAs are under negotiation and seven others under consideration.

India has been negotiating with Asean for an FTA for the past three years.

The guiding principle for the government has been to protect sensitive segments of the economy, particularly agriculture, textiles and small-scale industries, Ramesh said.

An FTA with Thailand that liberalised trade on 82 items has seen imports from Thailand triple in the past 30 months, while exports only doubled, the minister said.

The inverted duty structure, in which raw materials attract the highest rates and finished products the lowest, led to a surge in imports of auto and electronic components from Thailand, Ramesh said, adding that this anomaly was being looked into, adding that agriculture would not be included.

In the FTA being negotiated with Asean, only pepper is being liberalised, while cardamom and coconut will continue to figure on a negative list. Even on pepper, the import duty would be brought down from 70 per cent to 50 per cent by 2018, he said.

Business Desk

The Statesman

Asia News Network

Calcutta