Study On India-ASEAN Free Trade Area Agreement

Under the tide of economic globalization, India as one of the major Asian countries,has enhanced the relationship with other countries, especially, the economic and traderelationship with ASEAN countries. From1990s, under the guidance of India’s LookEast Policy, It established the economic and trade ties with ASEAN countriesgradually, which made India-ASEAN trade and economic relations developedrapidly. The signing of India-ASEAN Free Trade Area Agreement that containsoutstanding achievements made by the Parties for decades of cooperation, marked theIndia-ASEAN trade and economic cooperation has entered a new stage ofdevelopment. Now, India-ASEAN Free Trade Area negotiations have achievedfruitful results on trade in goods and dispute settlement, negotiations on trade inservices, investment and other areas of economic cooperation has also madeoutstanding progress. India-ASEAN Free Trade Area Agreement could be a referenceto the construction of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and the optimization of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Agreement. Meanwhile, It could bring opportunities andchallenges for the relationship and regional economic cooperation between China andASEAN countries.This paper has four parts:The first part,“the summary of India-ASEAN Free Trade Area Agreement”, firstdescribed the reasons of signing the agreement; then, introduced the process of thesigning by phases, also clarified the development process of India-ASEAN economicand trade relations in the signing course，Thus, which could fully demonstrate the insand outs of the signing of the India-ASEAN Free Trade Area Agreement.The second part,“the analysis of the India-ASEAN Free Trade Area Agreement”introduced the main content of “Framework Agreement on Comprehensive EconomicCooperation between India and ASEAN”,“Agreement on Trade in Goods under theFramework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between India andASEAN” and “Agreement on Dispute Settlement Mechanism under the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between India and ASEAN” inturn.The third part,“Comparison with the China-ASEAN Free Trade AreaAgreement”，compared these three agreements above with that of China-ASEAN FreeTrade Area, and made comparative conclusions.The forth part,“The impact of the signing of India-ASEAN Free TradeAgreement on China and the countermeasures we could take”, It described theopportunities and challenges brought by the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement toChina, and put forward some suggestions for China to response to the India-ASEANFree Trade Area Agreement.