JAKARTA, Aug 7: Difficult negotiations over an Asean-India free trade deal have been concluded and the last obstacles overcome, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) secretary general Surin Pitsuwan said Thursday.

“They have been concluded but not signed. They have just finished the negotiations,” Surin told AFP from Bangkok, without elaborating.

The agreement covering billions of dollars in trade but not services between the 10 Asean states and India was supposed to have been concluded last year.

But talks became bogged down by differences over products which India wanted excluded from tariff cuts. New Delhi had submitted a list of 1,414 products, while Asean’s target number was 400.

At their annual summit in Singapore last November, Asean officials said the grouping would not resume negotiations with India until it came up with a better offer.

It was not clear how the issue had been resolved and Asean officials at the regional bloc’s Jakarta secretariat were not available to comment.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.—AFP