The Philippines has committed to give its stamp of approval to the Asean-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Services and Investments soon as sought by officials from the South Asian country at the recently concluded 25th Asean Summit in Myanmar.
“India asked for the formal concurrence of the Philippines for the Asean-India Free Trade Agreement. The Philippines is the only country that has yet to give its concurrence,” Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said.
The 12th Asean-India Summit was held during the second day of the broader Asean summit.
Domingo said the Philippines has not given its concurrence to the deal as the Department of Trade and Industry still needs to get the approval of all government agencies concerned.
The trade chief said India understands that the delay is only procedural and that no issue stands in the way of the approval.
Negotiations for the services and investment agreement of the Asean-India FTA concluded in 2012 and the pact was signed by India early in September. According to foreign news sources, during the summit in Myanmar, President Aquino assured India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the process for inking the deal is progressing.
The services agreement will pave the way for freer movement of labor and investments between the 10-member bloc and India and, more significantly, will allow India to capitalize on a broader market for its strong service sub-industries, such as information technology, telecommunications and finance.
The agreement will build on the existing free trade in goods agreement with India, which was implemented in 2010.
India-Asean trade is currently pegged at $81 billion, with a target to boost this figure to $100 billion by 2015.