India and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) are inching towards initiating discussions on having a relook at tariffs or import duties on merchandise traded under the Asean-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA), a key part of the review of the pact.
At the 6th joint committee meeting on the review of AITIGA that concluded here late Friday, the eight sub-committees under the joint committee also made “good progress” in textual discussions, a statement by the department of commerce said.
Texts are proposals from the parties to an agreement. Negotiations between officials try to reach a common ground on the proposals.
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There are 8 sub-committees under the AITIGA joint committee to negotiate aspects related to market access, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, standards and technical regulations, customs procedures, economic and technical cooperation, trade remedies, and legal and institutional provisions. All the 8 sub-committees met during this round of negotiations.
This round of AITIGA review negotiations was preceded by two high level meetings – 21st ASEAN-India Economic Ministers Meeting in September and 21st ASEAN-India Summit in October. The Economic Ministers and Prime Ministers/Leaders during both these meetings urged the AITIGA joint committee to expedite negotiations and work towards conclusion of review in 2025.
The next meeting of AITIGA joint committee is scheduled in February 2025 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The AITIGA came into force in 2010 and the review of the agreement was agreed to in 2019 on the demand by India after imports from Asean surged and trade balance became moved heavily in favour of the 10-member grouping.
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India’s trade deficit with Asean widened from $4.98 billion in 2010-11, the first full year of operation of AITIGA to $38.4 billion in 2023-24. The deficit has fallen from $43.5 billion in the previous year. It was $25.7 billion in FY22.
Asean as a group is one of the major trade partners of India with about 11% share in the country’s global trade. The bilateral trade in 2023-24 was $121 billion. In April-October 2024, it grew 5.2% to $73 billion.
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