India signs Trade in Services & Trade in Investments Agreement with ASEAN

India signs Trade in Services & Trade in Investments Agreement with ASEAN

The goods trade between the two increased from US $ 44 billion in FY2010 to US $ 74 billion in FY2014 of which exports were US $ 33bn and imports US $ 42bn in  FY2014. India has formally signed the Trade in Services & Trade in Investments Agreement with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The Services Agreement will open up opportunities of movement of both manpower and investments from either side between India and ASEAN. India-ASEAN Agreement on Trade in Goods was signed in 2009 and became effective from 2010.

The signing of the agreement in trade in Services & Investments is reflective of India’s deep commitment to have a strong institutional architecture for economic ties with ASEAN. As part of this economic vision, India is also part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations which presently being discussed between ASEAN and its six partner countries.

Key Features of Trade in Services Agreement are:

• The Trade in Services Agreement with the ASEAN contains several important Articles including agreement on transparency, domestic regulations, recognition, market access, national treatment, increasing participation of developing countries, joint committee on services, review, dispute settlement and denial of benefits.

• Both India and ASEAN Member States have taken GATS plus commitments in various Services and modes of supply. Each ASEAN Member State has tabled individual schedule of commitments which are equally applicable for India and other ASEAN Member States. India on the other hand has tabled three schedules of commitments one for Philippines, one for Indonesia and one for the remaining eight ASEAN Member States. It was also agreed by India that in order to increase participation of the least developed countries no additional requests would be tabled to the CLMV countries (Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar and Vietnam). All the three schedules tabled by India are well within the existing autonomous regime of India.

• Movement of Natural persons (one of the key areas of interest for India) has been included in the Agreement which defines Business Visitors, Intra Corporate Transferees (Managers, Executives and Specialists) and Contractual Service Suppliers. This will help provide commercially meaningful market across in ASEAN for our professionals, including those from the IT/ITeS sector.