Wednesday, November 21, 2007

India-ASEAN FTA in May 2008: Nath

Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath said that the much awaited India – ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will be in place in May 2008.

He said that the meetings with ASEAN counterparts from Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam and with other ministries are over and a substantial progress has been made.

Differences pertained to only four products and three countries, and expressed the confidence that these issues would be sorted out soon, said Nath. While negotiations with regards to palm oil, pepper, tea and coffee involving the countries of Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam are still going on.

The United States began issuing invitations to talks intended to relaunch moves to establish a Palestinian State. The full guest list is expected to be published later today for the next week`s conference in Maryland.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have received invitations to US-sponsored peace talks.


The US state department confirmed that key Arab states including Syria and Saudi Arabia had also been invited.Sarkozy vows to stand by his economic reforms despite industrial protest. French President Nicolas has vowed to maintain his controversial economic reforms despite a second week of crippling industrial action. He said the reforms were overdue and that they were necessary for what he said to confront the challenges set by the world.

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