ISDS Case Map
ASEAN
The China-ASEAN FTA will form a huge market, with 1.85 billion consumers and a combined gross domestic product of almost US$2.5 trillion. Both sides hope to establish an FTA by 2010, and will gradually reduce export tariffs until then.
Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) has demanded that all its members should be allowed to maintain separate negative lists with India in the free trade agreement (FTA) being negotiated between the two sides. It, however, wants India to have a common negative list for all the 10 Asean members.
With multilateral talks through the World Trade Organisation moving rather slowly, the engagement with the Asian Tigers seems to be the Indian ‘Elephant' economy's chance to catch up with the Chinese Dragon.
Indonesia could lose US$400 million in potential export revenues per year if it does not establish a free trade agreement (FTA) with Japan, while most other ASEAN members have done so to complement the region's own free market in 2010, a study shows.
As a new sub-regional group, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is making its presence felt in this part of the world.
Thailand said it had refused to sign a trade agreement between South Korea and ASEAN, insisting that rice be included on the list of goods facing tariff cuts.
While it's too early to judge the prospects for the "pan-Asian" free trade community mentioned in the inaugural East Asia Summit (EAS), Taiwan, which has been excluded from participating, should devise a strategy to avoid being marginalized before it's too late, analysts said.
A quality free trade agreement (FTA) between countries should cover 90 to 95 per cent of their trade, Asean Secretary General Ong Keng Yong said Wednesday, adding that India's long exclusion list of products hampered such a pact with Asean.
The impending free trade agreement with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is expected to mark yet another leap for Korea in its pursuit of extensive trade ties in strategic markets.
Korea has taken another step forward in its pursuit of free trade agreements by signing the framework agreement with ASEAN on Tuesday. It should provide new momentum toward launching or accelerating talks with more trading partners, including the United States, Japan and China.
