India-Asean FTA review talks: Goyal for addressing local industry's concerns

India on Friday called for addressing the concerns of its domestic industries affected by the existing free trade agreement (FTA) with the 10-nation bloc ASEAN as the two regions negotiate a review of the pact.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has also emphasized the need to rectify the inequitable tariff liberalization under the agreement.

Goyal said this during the stock-taking exercise of the progress of review talks for the India-ASEAN free trade agreement in goods (AITIGA) in Laos.

All the ministers took note of the progress in negotiations for the review of the agreement.

"Minister Goyal in his intervention stressed the need for addressing injury to industries from the existing FTA and the inequitable tariff liberalisation during the review. He also cited India's ongoing efforts of integrating with other economies through FTAs and highlighted the urgency in upgrading AITIGA which otherwise may lead to diversion of bilateral trade to other regions, the commerce ministry said in a statement.

The economic ministers or their representatives from all the 10 ASEAN countries - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam participated in the meeting.

It said that the ministers reiterated the commitment to ensure that the outcome of the review should be mutually beneficial and commercially meaningful and will make the AITIGA more effective, user-friendly, simple, and trade facilitative for businesses.

They encouraged the joint committee, which is engaged in review talks, to expedite the negotiations to conclude the review in 2025.

The review of the agreement is a long-standing demand of Indian industry and India is looking forward to an upgraded pact which will address the current asymmetries in bilateral trade and will make trade more balanced and sustainable.

Goyal reiterated India's request for setting up of Joint Committees under the two separate agreements on services and investment, signed in 2014, to review the implementation of these pacts.

The minister is at Vientiane, Laos to participate in the 21st ASEAN-India Economic Ministers' (AEM-India) .

The review is high on India's priority list to make it more user-friendly, simple and trade-facilitative for businesses.

The next round of official talks for the ongoing review meeting of the India-Asean free trade agreement in goods will be held in November.

The third round of the negotiations was concluded on August 1 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The pact was signed in 2009. ASEAN is an important trade partner of India with about 11 per cent share in India's global trade.

India's exports to the 10-nation bloc ASEAN were USD 41.2 billion in 2023-24, while imports aggregated at USD 80 billion in the last fiscal.  ASEAN accounts for 10.9 per cent of India's global trade.

India is asking for a review of the agreement to eliminate barriers and misuse of the trade pact.

On the sidelines of the AEM-India meeting, Goyal held a bilateral meeting with Helene Budliger Artieda, Secretary for Economic Affairs, Switzerland.

Both sides discussed the progress in ratification of India-EFTA  (European Free Trade Association) Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement signed on March 10 and discussed the way forward in facilitating USD 100 billion FDI (foreign direct investment)  commitment by the EFTA states under the agreement.

The EFTA members are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.