India will host the next round of negotiations to review the Asean-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) in November this year, per the government.
The two sides participated in the third round of the AITGA review in Indonesia this week, during which significant efforts were made to move the talks forward.
“The review of AITIGA, signed in 2009, will help create further opportunities for businesses on both sides to enhance the level of India-ASEAN trade. The next meeting of AITIGA joint committee will be held in India from November 19-22 2024,” according to an official statement released by the Commerce Department on Saturday.
The ten-member ASEAN includes Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.
Bilateral meetings were held between India’s representative and those from partner countries, including Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia, on the sidelines of this week’s review meeting to discuss specific issues and “develop a common understanding”.
New Delhi is participating in the talks to nudge the ASEAN nations to give greater market access to its businesses by lowering tariff and non-tariff barriers so that the huge trade deficit it has with the bloc could be bridged.
In 2023-24, India’s trade deficit with the bloc widened to $38.46 billion from $7.5 billion during the implementation of the agreement in 2010. India exported goods worth $41.2 billion to the region while its imports were valued at $79.66 billion. The ASEAN countries account for about 11 per cent of India’s global trade.
The AITIGA joint committee initiated discussions to review of pact in May 2023, and the negotiations began in February 2024 in New Delhi.The second round took place in May 2024 in Putrajaya, Malaysia.
During the third round of negotiations in Jakarta, Indonesia, this week, all eight sub-committees dealing with national treatment and market access, Rules of Origin, standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures, sanitary and phytosanitary, legal and institutional issues, customs procedures and trade facilitation, trade remedies and economic and technical cooperation met alongside the fifth AITIGA JC. “All the sub-committees reported the outcomes of their discussions to the fifth AITIGA JC which provided them further guidance to steer their future work,” the release noted.