ASEAN members agreed to review for FTA: Goyal

India has initiated dialogues with ASEAN to review the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal informed Rajya Sabha on Friday.

Replying questions during Question Hour in Upper House, the Minister said though India signed FTA with ASEAN around 10-year ago and opened its market to other countries, it did not got much benefited out of it.

"We have opened up our markets for many other countries to the detriment of India's interest and Indian coffee growers interest," he said.

The government already initiated dialogue with ASEAN countries and it has also agreed to review the FTA, he said.

The proposed review of the FTA include implementation issues, rules of origin, verification process and release of consignments; customs procedures; to take into account other negotiations on further liberalization of trade in goods; and sharing and exchange of trade data, the Minister said in a written reply.

ASEAN (Association of South East Asia Nations), is a block of 10 countries, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei.

India signed final FTA agreement with ASEAN on August 13, 2009 and it came into affect on January 1, 2010.

To another question, the Minister said that the Coffee Board working on to create an India brand of coffee rather than focusing on different companies having their own brands.

“They are working towards creating a brand equity of Indian coffee and then within that there would be subset of the various brands that are already available,” he said.