10-17-2003, 04:48 AM
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Report: India and China propose negotiations on free-trade pact
Canadian Press
Monday, October 13, 2003
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NEW DELHI (AP) - Encouraged by their improving relations, India and China want to start negotiations on a possible free trade area, a news report said Monday.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao have agreed to set up a joint study group for this purpose, according to the Times of India. Vajpayee and Wen met on the sidelines of last week's summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Bali, Indonesia.
India and China, which attended the Bali meeting as "summit partners," are already negotiating free trade pacts with the 10-country ASEAN. The Times report said the India-China blueprint for free trade will emulate their negotiations with the ASEAN grouping.
Last year, China and ASEAN agreed to bring a free trade pact in force by 2010, and at last week's Bali meet it was India's turn to lay down a roadmap for a free trade area with its East Asian neighbours by 2015.
New Delhi and Beijing say they are committed to making the India-ASEAN-China trade axis the world's fastest growing economic zone.
Already, India and China are among the world's fastest growing economies and both countries aim to double their bilateral trade to US$10 billion by 2004. India's exports to China are increasing about 100 per cent annually.
Efforts to intensify their economic exchanges follow their leaders' initiative to expedite resolution of border disputes and other political differences.
Much of the animosity between China and India, stemming from a border war in 1962 and a limited clash across the disputed border in 1986, has evaporated. But lingering differences remain over how to define sections of their shared border.
India says China still holds 38,000 square kilometres of its territory at Aksai Chin in Kashmir. China lays claim to 90,000 square kilometres of land in India's far eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.
During Vajpayee's visit to Beijing in June - considered a turning point in the relations of the nuclear-powered Asian neighbours - he and Wen agreed to appoint special representatives for early resolution of these differences.
The two countries are also increasingly co-operating on international issues such as the situation in Iraq and negotiations at the World Trade Organization.
The Times of India report quoted Vajpayee as saying his meeting with Wen at Bali reviewed the "substantive forward movement in our bilateral relations" since June.
Report: India and China propose negotiations on free-trade pact
Canadian Press
Monday, October 13, 2003
ADVERTISEMENT
NEW DELHI (AP) - Encouraged by their improving relations, India and China want to start negotiations on a possible free trade area, a news report said Monday.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao have agreed to set up a joint study group for this purpose, according to the Times of India. Vajpayee and Wen met on the sidelines of last week's summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Bali, Indonesia.
India and China, which attended the Bali meeting as "summit partners," are already negotiating free trade pacts with the 10-country ASEAN. The Times report said the India-China blueprint for free trade will emulate their negotiations with the ASEAN grouping.
Last year, China and ASEAN agreed to bring a free trade pact in force by 2010, and at last week's Bali meet it was India's turn to lay down a roadmap for a free trade area with its East Asian neighbours by 2015.
New Delhi and Beijing say they are committed to making the India-ASEAN-China trade axis the world's fastest growing economic zone.
Already, India and China are among the world's fastest growing economies and both countries aim to double their bilateral trade to US$10 billion by 2004. India's exports to China are increasing about 100 per cent annually.
Efforts to intensify their economic exchanges follow their leaders' initiative to expedite resolution of border disputes and other political differences.
Much of the animosity between China and India, stemming from a border war in 1962 and a limited clash across the disputed border in 1986, has evaporated. But lingering differences remain over how to define sections of their shared border.
India says China still holds 38,000 square kilometres of its territory at Aksai Chin in Kashmir. China lays claim to 90,000 square kilometres of land in India's far eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.
During Vajpayee's visit to Beijing in June - considered a turning point in the relations of the nuclear-powered Asian neighbours - he and Wen agreed to appoint special representatives for early resolution of these differences.
The two countries are also increasingly co-operating on international issues such as the situation in Iraq and negotiations at the World Trade Organization.
The Times of India report quoted Vajpayee as saying his meeting with Wen at Bali reviewed the "substantive forward movement in our bilateral relations" since June.