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MANILA?The Philippines welcomed the announcement that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations would sign a free trade pact with India in December, the foreign department said on Friday.
"The Philippines welcomes the conclusion of the ASEAN-India FTA (free trade agreement)," the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
"This important development augers well for the mutual progress of our two sides and will help intensify cooperation between these two dynamic regions of Asia," the statement said.
Officials said in Brunei that the remaining obstacles to the pact, which will liberalize trade in goods between India and the 10-member ASEAN, had been removed, setting the stage for the signing of the agreement on the sidelines of the ASEAN-India Summit in December.
ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan told Agence France-Presse on Thursday that the negotiations had been concluded on the deal covering billions of dollars in trade but not services.
India adopted a free-market economy in the early 1990s and is keen to expand trade ties with ASEAN, but it also wants to protect sensitive sectors such as agriculture and textiles, which provide livelihoods for millions.
ASEAN aims to create a single market of more than half a billion people by 2015 to help battle competition from China and India.
The bloc is also seeking alliances with the fast-rising regional giants. ASEAN has signed a landmark deal with China to create the world's biggest free trade zone by 2010.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
