Government to review free trade pacts with Asean countries

Hindustan Times

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Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Goyal cited growing trade deficit with ASEAN countries during 2010-11 until 2018-19 to state that the earlier trade pacts had been asymmetrical.

The government on Tuesday informed the Rajya Sabha that India would review lopsided trade agreements with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and secure better deals and that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) failed to address India’s concerns on trade deficit, which forced the country to not join the pact.

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Goyal cited growing trade deficit with ASEAN countries during 2010-11 until 2018-19 to state that the earlier trade pacts had been asymmetrical.

“A major reason has been that India gave much larger market access to some of these countries but received less in return. For example, in the ASEAN-India FTA (AIFTA) we enabled greater market access by eliminating tariffs on 74.4% lines, however, some of the ASEAN countries eliminated tariffs on only 50.1 % and 69.7 % lines,” the Minister said.The trade deficit has reached upto ₹7 lakh crore and done a lot of damage, he said.

Goyal said that it was the government’s priority to correct the asymmetry in the existing pacts and maximise its export potential to benefit domestic industry and farmers. He said that to achieve this, the government was working with existing FTA partners like South Korea and Japan. “We have also secured an agreement to initiate a review of India-ASEAN Trade and Goods Agreement to make the AIFTA more user-friendly, simple and trade facilitative,” he said.

On November 4 in Bangkok, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the call of not joining the RCEP agreement.

Reference: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/government-to-review-free-trade-pacts-with-asean-countries/story-APXeVlz532RgIOTLzUZLUM.html

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