Asean offers on services poor: India

NEW DELHI: India is disappointed with the first round of offers by the Asean countries for opening up the services sector under the bilateral comprehensive economic cooperation deal, the goods side of which has already been implemented. The two have now decided to better their offers over the next two weeks ahead of the senior officials meeting scheduled in Bangkok early next month.

“The first round of offers that were exchanged in a meeting last week were very disappointing. I think both sides could offer much more,” a commerce department official told ET. India sees a lot of opportunities for its professionals in the east Asian region, especially in sectors such as medicine & health care, education, accountancy and architecture.

In fact, a good agreement in services is something that will help the country tilt the bilateral pact in its favour, as the Asean members are expected to gain substantially from the deal on goods. The Asean countries include Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos, Mayanmar and Cambodia.

Negotiators from India had sought a separate annexure on Mode 4, or movement of workers, in the services agreement so that there is more clarity in the rules, but the Asean members are yet to agree to it.

“They will take some time, but we are hopeful that they would agree,” the official said. The country wants to ink mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) in various services sectors so that professionals can work in the region without having to seek additional local qualifications. “We hope that in the next fifteen days we will see more substantial offers from the Asean countries.

India, too, is willing to improve its offers,” the official said, adding that time was running out as the services and investment deal is scheduled to be implemented this year. A secretary-level meeting is scheduled in Brunei at the end of July which will be followed by a ministerial meeting in Vietnam in August that will be attended by trade ministers from India and all ten Asean countries. “The idea is to have the services and investment texts in place before the ministerial meeting so that the final agreement can be signed by the end of the year,” the official added.

The Indo-Asean goods agreement which would lead to the elimination of duties on more than 4,000 products traded between the two sides over the next few years was implemented since the beginning of the current year.

Some Asean members are yet to complete the process of ratification of the agreement.