A seminar on the impacts of the two-year-old ASEAN – India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIG) took place in Ho Chi Minh City on October 31.

The event was jointly organised by the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, the municipal Institute for Development Studies, the WTO Affairs Consultation Centre and India ’s Consulate General in HCM City .

According to experts, the AITIG has brought Vietnam a lot of chances to promote its political and trade ties, especially with taxation, to increase its competitiveness and attract more investment from India .

This is because India is committed to lowering its tariffs on some exports that Vietnam is strong in such as garments, footwear, wood and wooden products, aquatic products, coal, rubber, iron and steel.

However, both countries still face all kinds of domestic taxes, anti-dumping cases and trade disputes.

Tran Quang Huy, the deputy head of the Ministry for Industry and Trade’s Department of African, West and South Asian Markets said that Vietnamese firms should attend more trade fairs and exhibitions and increase advertising in order to access Indian consumers.

India ’s Consul General Abhay Thakur urged Vietnamese businesses to invest in construction, telecommunications, electricity, transport, automobile technology, retail and consumer foodstuffs.

India also has a significant demand for agriculture materials, paper pulp and iron ore, he said./.