ASEAN - Understanding it as a free trade agreement

Kerala State is known for its lush expanses of cardamom, pepper, tea and rubber that grow on its misty hills, and the beautiful catches of fish on a coastline punctuated by lagoons and backwater.  But a cloud hovens over this picture of plenty - a free trade deal with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).  The State which has been blessed with natural resources is now filled with agitations against the Indo-ASEAN free trade agreement. The academic community in the State is debating on the pros and cons of the agreement.  The organizations favouring the UPA 2 is trying to project the merits of the agreement, but the ruling party of the State organizing mass public agitations which include the human chain formed by them.  In the midst of all these an effort is made here just to understand ASEAN as a free trade agreement.  This will enable the student community to understand the agreement clearly and to encourage them to enquire into it further:
ASEAN Agreement:  The ASEAN agreement which paved the way for present discussion and agitations is a free trade agreement signed by Anand Sharma, the Commerce Minister of India on August 13, 2009 at Bangok with the Association of South East Asian Nations.  The agreement already became operative from January, 2010.  ASEAN is the abbreviation of Association of South East Asian Nations which comprises ten Nations, ie., Brunei Darussalam, Combodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.  India is a dialogue partner at ASEAN, which already has FTAs with three other dialogue partners China, Japan and South Korea.
India's engagement with ASEAN started with its "Look East Policy" in the year 1991.  India became a Sectional Dialogue Partner of ASEAN in 1992 and Full Dialogue Partner in 1996.  Followed by discussions with India and ASEAN Economic Minister leads to the establishment of ASEAN - India Economic Linkages Task Force, which was asked to prepare the draft framework agreement.  Subsequently, at the first ASEAN - India summit held on 5th November 2002 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the erstwhile Prime Minister of India made the following major announcements:-
1.  India will extend special and differential trade treatment to ASEAN Countries, based on their levels of development to improve their market access to India.
2.  FTA within 10 years time frame.
A framework agreement on Comprehensive Economic Co-operation between the ASEAN and India was signed by the Prime Minister of India and the Heads of Nation/Governments of ASEAN members during the second ASEAN-India summit on 8th October 2003 in Bali, Indonesia.  Followed by this, the ASEAN- India Trade Negotiations Committee was constituted and several meetings have been held.  They undertook several rounds of negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement which includes a Free Trade Area in Goods, Services and Investments.  Now the negotiations in Trade in goods turned to be working agreement and the negotiations in Trade in Services and Investments were already started.
Till now we are going through the development of Indo- ASEAN free trade agreement.  For enabling a clear understanding on the agreement, a clear cut idea regarding free trade agreement is a must.  That we will see in the followed by posts.................................