India-Asean officials to meet next week in Jakarta to resume goods trade pact review

New Delhi, Oct 2 (PTI) Trade negotiators from India and the 10-nation ASEAN bloc will meet in Jakarta from Monday to push forward the review of their goods trade pact, an official said.

The official said that the work on the review of the Asean-India Trade in Goods Agreement has progressed well, but it is still some distance from conclusion for any announcement at the 22nd Asean-India Summit on October 27 in Kuala Lumpur.

After the 11th round of review (October 6-7), the leaders at the summit will be apprised of the progress and seek their directions.

"There are still discussions that are going on. There has been some progress seen in the last 3-4 months. The effort from the Asean side is to see that there are significant things to report by the time the summit takes place.

"We will not be able to close the review because the talks are not at that stage," the senior official said.

The 10th round of talks for the review was held from August 10-14 here.

The review process is being led by a joint committee, which has eight sub-committees under it, each dealing with a particular subject.

There are sub-committees 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).

The review of the agreement is a long-standing demand of the 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.

ASEAN members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

A free trade agreement in goods between India and the 10-nation bloc ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) was signed in 2009.

The ASEAN trade deal came into force in January 2010. In August 2023, both sides announced a complete review of the existing agreement on goods by 2025.

ASEAN, as a group, is one of India's major trade partners with about an 11 per cent share in the country's global trade.

Bilateral trade reached USD 123 billion in 2024-25. Of the total, India's exports during the year stood at just USD.96 billion, while imports were USD 84.15 billion. PTI RR BAL BAL