FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH THAILAND
SOON
JAITLEY
HOLDS BILATERALS WITH THAILAND, MEXICO AND COMMISSIONER LAMY
India and Thailand
are likely to conclude a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
soon. This was indicated when the Thai Minister of Commerce Mr.
Adisai Bodharamik called on Mr. Arun Jaitley, Minister of Commerce
and Industry and Law and Justice, for bilateral discussions at
Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt) last evening. The idea of FTA between
India and Thailand was mooted during the visit of the Thai Prime
Minister to India in November 2001. Since then, considerable work
has been done by both sides in the joint working group
meetings on the subject and the draft framework agreement has
almost been finalised. The two-way trade between India and Thailand
currently at a little over US $ one billion is way below the potential
and the Thai Minister conveyed his government's interest in raising
the level of bilateral trade with India substantially taking advantage
of the complementarities of these two major Asian economies.
Mr. Jaitley, who
is participating in the WTO informal ministerial meeting being
hosted by Egypt at Sharm El-Sheikh in the preparatory process
to the main Ministerial Conference of the WTO scheduled to
be held at Cancun in Mexico later this year, also had bilateral
meetings with Mr. Luis Ernesto Derbez, Minister of External Relations
of Mexico and Commissioner Pascal Lamy of the European Union (EU).
The Minister had an exchange of views with Mr. Derbez and
Commissioner Lamy covering both bilateral and multilateral trade
issues.
Noting that trade
between India and Mexico had been growing at a steady rate but
the size and composition of trade was hardly commensurate with
the potential, both the Ministers agreed to work for the expansion
of bilateral trade by pursuing the proposed preferential trade
agreement (draft PTA has been sent to the Mexican authorities);
conclusion of a bilateral investment protection agreement (BIPA)
and setting up of the proposed Indo Mexican Council for Trade
as an institutional mechanism to strengthen trade ties between
the two countries. Mr. Jaitley also raised the issue of visa problems
faced in Mexico by Indian exporters and the Mexican Minister promised
to look into the issue at the highest level.
