Bangkok: Southeast Asian nations expect trade with India will soar once the regional bloc ASEAN signs a just-concluded deal with New Delhi at a regional summit in December, officials said today.

Talks in Brunei yesterday removed the remaining obstacles to the pact, which will liberalise trade in goods between India and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said the group's secretary general Surin Pitsuwan.

The deal covering billions of dollars of trade in goods, but not services, is expected to be signed during the ASEAN-India Summit in December, officials said, though it was not immediately clear when it would take effect.

Talks were supposed to have wrapped up last year, but got bogged down over Indian tariffs on crude and palm oil from regional heavyweights Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as metals and textiles from Thailand, officials said.

"It's done. All final obstacles on palm oil tariffs have been resolved," the Indonesian trade ministry's Director General of International Trade Cooperation Gusmardi Bustami told AFP in Jakarta.

Total trade between ASEAN and India amounted to 28.7 billion dollars in 2006, putting India eighth on the list of the blocs trading partners behind countries like Australia and South Korea, according to ASEAN figures.

ollars a year, said Chana Kanaratanadilok, deputy director of Thailand s department of trade negotiations. (AFP) PMR ASJ 08081511 DEL NNNN
Source : PTI