Some headway is expected in the review of the Asean-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) before the next meeting of the joint commission (JC) which is spearheading the efforts, an official said.
At the August meeting of the JC in August, 10-member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had made a proposal to address concerns on India regarding the rapidly expanding trade deficit with the grouping since AITIGA came into force. To that proposal India has presented a counter proposal.
“India’s counter proposal is under active consideration by the Asean side. We are hopeful that we will soon be able to resolve the outstanding issues and take the review forward,” the official said
To narrow the trade gap India is seeking greater market access through easing of some technical and some non-tariff barriers. It also wants the Asean to address its concerns on routing of products from third countries to take advantage of the lower duties offered by the agreement.
At the Asean-India Economic Ministers consultation on 24-26 September in Kuala Lumpur Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal emphasised the need for Asean to finalise its position on India’s counter proposal.
The deadline for the completion of the review has been set at 2025-end. Asean-India Summit is scheduled from October 27 in Kuala Lumpur and officials are expecting some momentum to be imparted to the review when the top leadership from both sides meet.
AITIGA came into effect in January 2010. In 2009–10, India’s exports to Asean stood at $18.11 billion and imports at $25.79 billion. By 2024–25, exports grew to $38.96 billion, but imports ballooned to $84.15 billion.
The trend of increasing trade gap was visible early in the early years of the agreement.
Within five years of the agreement India had started asking for a review. It took India four years to bring Asean around to the need of review of the AITIGA.
Asean agreed to the 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. However, with the deadline nearing and every country facing uncertainty due to the actions of the US President Donald Trump both sides might speed up the pace of talks to get the review out of the way.
The joint committee that is leading the review has eight sub-committees under it, each dealing with a particular subject. There are 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). There is also a sub-committee on standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment Procedures (SC-STRACAP), and trade remedies (SC-TR).
ASEAN – that includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – remains a key trade partner for India, accounting for around 11% of its global trade.
