Saturday, September 26, 2009

what is asean contract

This is very important contract singed by indian goverment with asean nations.This is one of the major achivement of UPA govermnt lead by Dr.Manmohan singh.

ASEAN an overview
-------------------------------------

ASEAN(The Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok by the five original Member Countries, namely,
Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

The ASEAN Declaration states that the aims and purposes of the Association are:
(1) to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and
(2) to promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the
rule of law in the relationship among countries in the region and adherence to the
principles of the United Nations Charter.

ASEAN Member Countries have adopted the following fundamental principles in their relations with one another, as contained in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in
Southeast Asia (TAC):

* mutual respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, and national identity of all nations;
* the right of every State to lead its national existence free from external interference, subversion or coercion;
* non-interference in the internal affairs of one another;
* settlement of differences or disputes by peaceful manner;
* renunciation of the threat or use of force; and effective cooperation among themselves.

member countries (NOW)
=================
1.Brunei Darussalam
2.Cambodia
3.Indonesia
4.Laos
5.Malaysia
6.Myanmar
7.Philippines
8.Singapore
9.Thailand

asean and India
==================

This contract favours GATT(General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) 24 Th article ;
which is all about ,

CONCEPT OF MOST FAVOURED NATION.

"This principle is the core principle in the GATT and it aims to eliminate discrimination in the world trade and to promote liberalisation of world trade. if a country gives favourable treatment to one country regarding a particular issue, it must handle all members equally regarding the same issue."

my view:


ASEAN contract pushes India to cut the rates of products import. This must do with in few years. Some countries allow time till 2019. exclusion list(negative table) is another term related to asean contract. This is a list that contains few products which are not included in 'free from import tariff'. 631 items included in negative table. coffee,tea,natural rubber are not included in this list. kerala opposition leader mr.Omman chandi points that it is possible to renew asean contract in each year.but practically this thing is not easy. because the asean follows the GATT contract this is all about tariff free treading. the next issue about this contract is about natural rubber. this is one of the major crops in kerala.UPA government include natural rubber in exclusive list.but they exclude rubber accessories from the list. fisher men in kerala cost fears that this contract sucks their daily income. alappuzha diocese already released a notice about this fear.

"finding new fields is good but a blind jump is not necessary now."
"actually we are going to face the race of big economical corporates,richer become rich average will be discarded"



More about:The Most Favoured Nation (MFN) principle is a cornerstone of the multilateral trading system conceived after World War II. It seeks to replace the frictions and distortions of power-based (bilateral) policies with the guarantees of a rules-based framework where trading rights do not depend on the individual participants’ economic or political clout. Rather, the best access conditions that have been conceded to one country must automatically be extended to all other participants in the system. This allows everybody to benefit, without additional negotiating effort, from concessions that may have been agreed between large trading partners with much negotiating leverage. Although the formation of Regional Trading Blocks has eroded the fundamental importance of the concept to some extent, it is still the most fundamental obligation on which the entire foundation of GATT and WTO rests. The MFN principle must be observed as a fundamental principle for sustaining the multilateral free trade system. Regional integration and related exceptions need to be carefully administered so as not to undermine the Most Favoured Nation principle as a fundamental principle of the WTO.

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