This will be a reciprocal visit after the first-ever visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping to Maldives in September 2014. Maldives and India do not have a Free Trade Agreement. This is Maldives’s first FTA with any country, and China’s second FTA with any country in South Asia — after Pakistan. According to the Maldives Presidential office’s statement, the FTA will “enable exemption of duties on fisheries products exported to the world’s largest consumer market”. “The MDP notes that the Attorney General of the Maldives had advised corresponding legislation for the Agreement to be legally binding.

Source: Indian Express November 30, 2017 23:00 UTC