Indo-Malaysian FTA to be effective from July 01

30 Jun 2011 Evaluate

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and Malaysia will come into effect from July 01 2011. This FTA will provide access to Indian professional like accountants, engineers and doctors to the key South-East Asian nation. As per the official statement released by Ministry of commerce and industry on June 30, “the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) envisage liberalization of trade in goods, trade in services, investments and other areas of economic cooperation.” This is the fourth FTA with key Asian country, before this India has also entered into similar agreement with South Korea, Singapore and Japan, while FTA with Japan will come into effect from August.

According the statement, under India-Malaysia CECA, the items on which India has obtained market access from Malaysia includes basmati rice, mangoes, eggs, trucks, motorcycles and cotton garments, which are all items of considerable export interest to India. However, adequate protection has been provided by the Indian side for sensitive sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, textiles, chemicals, auto, etc, it added.

The CECA also facilitates the temporary movement of business people including contractual service suppliers, and independent professionals in commercially meaningful sectors including accounting and auditing, architecture, urban planning, engineering services, medical and dental, nursing and pharmacy, Computer and Related Services (CRS), and Management Consulting Services.

It aims to promote investments and create a liberal, facilitative, transparent and competitive investment regime. The CECA creates an attractive operating environment for the business communities of the both countries to increase bilateral trade and investment, the statement said.

The two way trade between India and Malaysia increased by 26% to $10 billion in 2010-11 from 2009-10, the implementation of FTA is expected to boost the bilateral trade to $15 billion by 2015. 

India had already entered, an FTA with ASEAN, a ten nation association, and this CECA agreement with Malaysia will further liberalizes tariffs beyond the India-ASEAN FTA, which is in implementation from January 01, 2010. 

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