India and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will meet in October for the 11th round of talks in the ongoing review of their goods trade agreement. The two sides have covered some ground in a meeting here Thursday evening.
In the 10th round of talks that went on from August 10 to August 14 in New Delhi, the joint committee for the review of Asean India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) focused on advancing the review to enhance its effectiveness, accessibility, and trade facilitation capabilities.
October Talks to be Hosted in Jakarta by Malaysia
The 11th meeting will be held at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia, and will be hosted by Malaysia. Both sides are aiming for the 2025 deadline to complete the review.
Seven of the eight Sub-Committees under the AITIGA Joint Committee also met on the margins – the Sub-Committee on Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation (SC-CPTF), Legal and Institutional Issues (SC-LII), National Treatment and Market Access (SC-NTMA), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SC-SPS) and Rules of Origin (SC-ROO).
The focus was also on standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment Procedures (SC-STRACAP), and trade remedies (SC-TR). “These meetings provided a platform for deeper collaboration, ensuring alignment with the broader goals of updating AITIGA,” a statement by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said..
The meeting was co-chaired by Additional Secretary in Department of Commerce Nitin Kumar Yadav, and Deputy Secretary General (Trade), Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, Malaysia Mastura Ahmad Mustafa.
Delegates from all ten ASEAN Member States — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam — participated.
Trade Ties Strong but Review Progress Limited
ASEAN remains a key trade partner for India, accounting for around 11% of India’s global trade. Bilateral trade reached $ 123 billion in 2024–25, reflecting the strong economic ties between the two sides and creating opportunities for enhanced cooperation in the years ahead.
Within five years of the agreement on goods being activated in 2010 India had started asking for a review of the pact as its imports from Asean zoomed but it could not derive the expected benefits. It took India four years to bring Asean around to the need of review of the AITIGA. “Asean agreed to review in November 2019 and for two years did not start negotiating on it. Even after a number of rounds of review negotiations the progress has been very limited,” an official had said earlier.