ISDS Case Map
India
South Korea and India announced Tuesday the start of negotiations aimed at signing a free trade deal by the end of next year, officials said.
The GCC-India free trade agreement (FTA) will open over a billion consumers' market for the Gulf countries.
With India signing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Sri Lanka (1998) and Thailand (2004), its imports from these two countries have gone up by over 300% and 125%, respectively, between 2002-03 and 2004-05. India's exports to Sri Lanka rose by about 47% and that to Thailand by 19% during the same period.
Thailand prepares to expand its FTA agreements with India from the original 82 items, after managing to open FTA areas with Japan.
After reaching free trade agreements with relatively small economies such as Chile and Singapore, Korea is looking to expand its horizons as it prepares to launch free trade negotiations with two of the world's leading economies.
India and Russia will be working for new economic agreements that would include higher investment of Russian firms in the country's lagging infrastructure.
THE SOUTH Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) has come into force with effect from January 1. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) which consists of seven countries, namely, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, is expected to start implementing SAFTA from June - July this year.
India on Friday expressed its desire for eventually expanding the proposed comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (Ceca) with Asean to a pan-Asian pact covering six more countries including Japan, China, Korea, Australia and New Zealand, aiming at a common economic community in East Asia.
India bilateral business and economic ties with Saudi Arabia got a significant boost with the signing of the proposed Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement (BIPA) and the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement.
Indian President Abdul Kalam will make a four-day visit to Korea from Feb. 6 through 9 for a summit with Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.
