India-Asean meet on services from next month

Officials from India and the 10-nation bloc Asean will begin meetings from next month to discuss ways to conclude the talks to widen their free trade agreement (FTA) to include services and investment.

"Meetings are starting next month here," Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said at an Assocham meet here today.

The two sides are discussing to expand the FTA they singed last August to cover services and investment,following which a market opening trade pact in goods was already operationlised on January 1.

New Delhi and Asean aim to increase their $44-billion trade to $50 billion by the end of this year itself.

The services sector is of key interest to New Delhi as it contributes over 55 per cent to the country's GDP. It is also an important area for export earnings as well.

Commenting on the concerns of the domestic industry on dumping of Chinese goods through Asean countries (Asean and China also have an FTA), Khullar said safeguards are available in the trade pact with the Southeast Asian nations.

"Sufficient safeguards are there to prevent such type of things...I am not exceptionally worried about that," he said.