SINGAPORE, Nov 20: India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked the Southeast Asian bloc on Tuesday to be “more reasonable” on sensitive farm products that have stalled free-trade talks, a news agency reported.

“We are trying to persuade our Asean friends to be more reasonable and I am hopeful that this process will yield satisfactory outcome,” Singh said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

In comments made en route to Singapore where he was scheduled to join a regional summit, Singh said the extent of protection that can be given to sensitive agricultural products was responsible for the deadlock over the free-trade deal.

“I hope they can resolve these issues,” he told PTI, adding that trade with Asean was of “high importance to India” but that opening up certain areas would adversely affect their farmers’ interest. Negotiations have been held up because of what Asean says is a list of 854 products that India wants to exclude from tariff cuts. India had submitted a list of 1,414 products, while Asean’s target number is 400.

Officials from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations said the grouping will not resume negotiations with India until New Delhi comes up with a better offer.

“For the time being, it’s temporarily postponed because we still cannot agree on the product coverage,” Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu told reporters on Monday.

“Unless India will come with a more progressive offer, I think we just wait to see what will happen,” he said.—AFP