PM asks ASEAN to be 'reasonable' on FTA

With India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) making little progress on a proposed free trade pact, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today asked the ten-nation bloc to be "more reasonable" on sensitive farm products.

"We are trying to persuade our Asean friends to be more reasonable and I am hopeful that this process will yield a satisfactory outcome," Singh said.

The Prime Minister is on a two-day visit to Singapore to attend the Asean and the East-Asia Summits.

He said there were some problems in giving a final shape to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Asean and these revolve around the extent of protection that they can give on some sensitive agricultural products.

"I hope they can resolve these issues," he said.

India and Asean have been negotiating an FTA to create a wider trading region but the two sides have to iron out differences on the level of duty protection for key farm products, particularly tea, coffee, pepper and palm oil.

Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath is already in Singapore, holding hectic parleys with trade ministers from ASEAN to work out a deal on the sensitive issues.

Singh said bilateral trade with Asean was of "high importance to India". Referring to deadlock between India and Asean, he said there were some worries on the sensitive farm products for which demands were being made from Asean  nations. "These would adversely affect our farmers' interest," he said.