Bimstec FTA: Ficci seeks shorter list of sensitive items

By agencies   |   Wednesday, 20 July 2005, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci) has sought a shorter list of sensitive items from Bimstec members for the free trade agreement (FTA) being negotiated within the grouping. It has pointed out that the sensitive lists of members contain large number of items of export interest to India. Industry members pointed out that India had a strong export interest in many sectors like rice, dairy, processed food, steel, automobiles & auto-parts, electronics and paper. They said that these items needed to be deleted from the negative lists of Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Member countries of Bimstec exchanged their initial sensitive lists last month and negotiations are on for the finalization of these lists. Elaborating on the contents of the sensitive lists, Ficci pointed out that in case of Bangladesh most of the items covered under the negative list belong to sectors like plastics, paper, cotton, man-made fibres, fabrics, apparels, metals, machinery, electronics and vehicles. These comprise about 68 percent of India’s exports to the country. Similarly in case of Thailand items in the list like fishery, pharmaceuticals, rubber, paper, apparels, textiles, metals, machinery, electronics and vehicles cover about 30 percent of exports to Thailand.