New Delhi: India and 10-member ASEAN have decided to review their 10-year old trade agreement to further promote business relationship and extend cooperation in areas like financial technology, startups and innovation.
India and the 10-member bloc will set up a joint panel for reviewing the free trade pact that was signed in 2009 and came into force from January 2010.
Economic ministers of ASEAN and India Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal met in Bangkok for the 16th AEM-India consultations on Tuesday.
India has been pushing for a review of the FTA with ASEAN saying that it has not gained from the trade pact with the bloc. The trade gap with ASEAN nations increased to USD 22 billion in 2018-19 from USD 13 billion in 2018-19.
This is the first review of the trade agreement.
“The ministers agreed to initiate the review of the ASEAN-India trade in goods agreement to make it more user-friendly, simple, and trade facilitative for businesses,” a joint media statement issued after the meeting said.
Both the sides also gained the recommendations of the ASEAN-India business council to further promote the potential of bilateral trade through the utilisation of the free trade pact as well as cooperation in some areas like financial technology, connectivity, startups and innovation.
The trade vloume between the two sides was USD 80.8 billion in 2018 against USD 73.6 billion in 2017.
The 10 ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam.