India and Indonesia, a member country of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), today operationalised a free-trade agreement signed between the two in 2009.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) today notified amendments to the Customs Tariff  (Determination of Origin of Goods) under the Preferential Trade Agreement between India and Indonesia, a member country of the Asean, effective 1 October 2010.

Besides Indonesia, five other Asean members - Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand - have also ratified the FTA with India.

The free-trade agreement between India and the Asean member countries slashes import duties on thousands of products like seafood, chemicals and apparel on either side.

India signed the free-trade agreement on goods with the Asean in August 2009 but the agreement had to be separately ratified by each member country for the agreement to be effective.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) on Monday issued a notification bringing the FTA with Indonesia into force from 1 October. Other Asean member countries are expected to operationalise the FTA in the coming months as the respective countries ratify the India-Asean free-trade agreement.

Countries like Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines are also expected to operationalise the FTA with India in the near future.

India became a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1996 and has been holding summit-level meetings with the Asean on an annual basis since 2002.

The FTA signed between India and Asean in August 2009 will lift import tariffs on over 80 per cent of traded products between 2013 and 2016, the commerce ministry said in a release.

India is currently engaging the 10-member Asean in liberalising the service and investment regimes as well in order to broadbase their free-trade agreement.

Indonesia is India's largest trading partner in the Asean, accounting for around $11.7 billion of the India-Asean bilateral trade of $44 billion in 2009-10.

The FTA with Indonesia slashes import duties on thousands of products, like seafood, chemicals and apparel on either side.