ISDS Case Map
ASEAN
Asean has expressed its concern on India's proposal to exclude a large number of products from tariff concessions under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
The Korea-ASEAN FTA will include the free flow of goods, services and investments, but a stumbling block emerged with a dispute over rice imports from Thailand. The issue is a sensitive one when Korean farmers are protesting about the removal of trade barriers on farm products under the WTO.
Japan plays a key role in promoting economic integration in Southeast Asia by helping to narrow the gap between developed and less developed countries in the region, scholars from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
South Korea and Southeast Asian nations on Tuesday inked a tariff-slashing Free Trade Agreement (FTA), with Thailand choosing to be excluded from the pact which does not include rice in its list of items.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and leaders of the 10 ASEAN countries, Japan and China held a one-day "ASEAN Plus Three Summit" in the Malaysian capital on Monday and adopted a joint statement calling for redoubled efforts for the formation of the so-called East Asia free trade agreement.
Australian Ambassador Colin Heseltine left Seoul two days ago for home at the end of his assignment with one major bit of unfinished business - he was not able to push the excellent bilateral relations between both countries to an even higher level with a free trade agreement.
With the preliminary Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with Asean, South Korea is expected to compete with China and Japan on a level playing field, a South Korean minister said Monday.
Saying that India was examining ways to develop regional trading arrangements with China, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today gave an affirmative commitment here that India will dismantle ''unwarranted'' barriers, expand global capital flows and bring down tariff rates to levels prevalent in ASEAN countries, as a build-up to creating an East Asian Community.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the enlarged East Asian free trade agreement (FTA) was not intended to replace the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as most of the negotiations done by Asean were WTO-compatible.
TOILET seats, dolls and chewing gum were some of the products a bemused Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz said had presented a hitch to the negotiations to the Asean-India Free Trade Agreement (AIFTA).
