WORLD
India, ASEAN move closer to having a relook at tariffs in goods trade pact review
- IBJ Bureau
- Nov 24, 2024
India and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are inching towards initiating discussions on having a relook at tariffs or import duties on merchandise traded under the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA), a key part of the review of the pact.
At the sixth joint committee meeting on the review of AITIGA that concluded late on Friday, the eight sub-committees under the joint committee also made “good progress” in textual discussions, a statement by the Department of Commerce said.
Texts are proposals from the parties to an agreement. Negotiations between officials try to reach a common ground on the proposals.
There are eight sub-committees under the AITIGA joint committee to negotiate aspects related to market access, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, standards and technical regulations, Customs procedures, economic and technical cooperation, trade remedies and legal and institutional provisions. All the eight sub-committees met during this round of negotiations.
This round of AITIGA review negotiations was preceded by two high-level meetings – 21st ASEAN-India economic ministers’ meeting in September and 21st ASEAN-India Summit in October. The economic ministers and prime ministers and leaders during both these meetings urged the AITIGA joint committee to expedite negotiations and work towards conclusion of the review in 2025.
The next meeting of the AITIGA joint committee is scheduled in February 2025 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The AITIGA came into force in 2010, and the review of the agreement was agreed to in 2019 on the demand by India after imports from ASEAN surged and trade balance became heavily in favour of the ten-member grouping.
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