New Delhi (VNA) – The Associationof Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India have agreed to review their freetrade agreement (FTA) signed in 2009 to make it more business-friendly andboost bilateral economic ties.
The two sides also decided to set up a jointcommittee for this purpose, according to a statement released after the meetingbetween economic ministers of ASEAN and Indian Minister of Commerce andIndustry Piyush Goyal in Bangkok on September 10.
The ministers agreed to initiate the review ofthe bilateral trade pact in goods to make it more user-friendly, simple, andtrade facilitative for businesses, the statement said.
The ministers tasked officials to work on thedetails of the review of the agreement and submit an update in the nextministerial meeting.
Both sides also received the recommendations ofthe ASEAN-India business council to further promote the bilateral tradepotential through optimising the FTA as well as cooperation in some areas suchas financial technology, connectivity, startups, and innovation.
Trade between ASEAN and India increased to 80.8billion USD in 2018 from 73.6 billion USD in 2017. However, India was notsatisfied with the rising trade deficit with ASEAN since the bilateral FTA ingoods took effect in January 2010.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia,Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam./.
VNA