The Hindu Business Line : Thailand gives up demand for duty cuts on rubber

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Thailand gives up demand for duty cuts on rubber

G. Srinivasan

Thai Minister to meet Kamal Nath tomorrow

Guwahati June 23 Ahead of the crucial India-Thailand free trade agreement (FTA) meeting in New Delhi on Monday, the Thailand Minister of Commerce, Mr Krirk-Krai Jirapaet, today said that his country has dropped the demand for import tariff cuts on natural rubber under the FTA.

Speaking at an interactive session with each north-eastern States here, the visiting Thai Minister said that "we have given up that demand and India should show flexibility on the FTA" negotiations.

As part of FTA negotiations, Thailand was insisting on reduction of import duty on natural rubber now at 25 per cent for quite sometime but New Delhi refused it stating that it is a sensitive product.

As the bilateral trade between India-Thailand is currently hovering at $3.5 billion, Thailand was able to make the best advantage of the early harvest scheme when 82 tariff lines were cut under the FTA. Now that Thailand has dropped the demand, the Thai Minister hoped that the forthcoming meeting with the Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, on Monday would yield some positive results for further consolidation of the relations between the two countries and enlarging the economic cooperation.

The Union Minister for North Eastern Region, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, said that it is for the first time that at the initiative of his Ministry, a meeting between a neighbouring country and a few States of the north-eastern region has been held in Agartala and Guwahati for the past two days and on Sunday in Shillong to explore the investment opportunities in the North-East region by Thailand.

The idea was, he said, how we could build an investment partnership between Thailand and north-eastern region. In Agartala, the focus was on rubber, bamboo and food processing and in Assam, the focus was on power, waterways, road and highways, he said.

Myanmar, Bangladesh

The Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, who was here at the invitation of Mr Aiyar, said the time has come to engage with Myanmar and Bangladesh too in joint investment projects and suggested a sub-regional arrangement between Bangladesh, Myanmar and the north-eastern region, over and above the regional grouping like SAARC.

Mr Ramesh said that as India is putting up 1500-MW gas-based power stations in the North-East, this could provide an investment opportunity to Thailand and said that Thailand could also consider as a joint venture partner in the 750-MW power plant in Tripura being built up by ONGC.

Similarly, he said in waterways, particularly in making the river Brahmaputra navigable and giving a reliable navigation system on Brahmaputra offers an important investment opportunity. In Tripura, Thailand could consider investment opportunities in setting up downstream rubber processing industry, he said.

Mr Ramesh said that India's Look East Policy could not be sustained if it does not benefit the North East and the policy could not succeed without economic and investment engagement with Myanmar and Bangladesh.

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