Industry & Economy
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Foreign Trade
Free trade with Thailand likely to begin from July
M. Ramesh
Recently in Bangkok
NEGOTIATIONS between India and Thailand over the Free Trade Agreement are slightly behind schedule. Right now, negotiators are discussing `rules of origin', or, what should be the value addition in each country so that the product made in one country can enjoy the concessional import tariff in the other.
Mr T.P. Seetharam, Deputy Chief of Mission in Thailand said he expected the Free Trade Agreement to go live from July 1. Addressing a meeting of the branch managers of the Chennai-based Shriram group in Bangkok last week, Mr Seetharam said that the two-way trade between India and Thailand could easily double from the current level of $1.5 billion (around Rs 6,787.5 crore), in the first year of the agreement.
At present, 84 items of trade have been identified for the `early harvest scheme', on which tariffs are to be completely eliminated by March 1, 2006. These items include some auto components, a range of chemicals and petrochemicals, fruits and household goods like refrigerators.
But even as negotiations over these items are going on, there are talks of co-operation in other areas like fisheries and tourism.
Both fisheries - mainly deep-sea fishing - and tourism are seen as areas of great potential.
Thailand's former Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Korn Dabbaransi, who is bringing into India a Thai delegation of biotechnologists next week, said that to Thailand, India meant much more than an alluring market.
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