India will soon sign the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in services and investments as it has received the relevant documents, Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher has said.
New Delhi could not sign the two agreements, one on services and the other on investments, in Myanmar last week as Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman could not attend the India-ASEAN Economic Ministers meeting due to other engagements.
“Unfortunately because the Minister had compelling engagements here, she could not attend the Ministerial meeting last week but we now have received the agreements on services and investments and the Minister would shortly sign them,” Kher said at an event organised by the Research and Information System for Developing Countries.
The pacts are now being signed through the circulation method in which countries sign the documents one by one.
While the details of the services and investment pacts were sealed in March this year, the agreements have to be signed by the Economic Ministers of all countries before they are formally adopted.
The formal adoption is likely to be during the next India-ASEAN summit later this year. All ASEAN members, which include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, are expected to get the pacts ratified by their Parliaments by that time.
India and ASEAN have already implemented an FTA in goods. FTA in services and investments seeks to boost cross-border investment and facilitate movement of professionals between India and the ten-member bloc.