Asean stonewalling progress of FTA review talks with India: Official

Asean nations are stonewalling the progress of the ongoing negotiations on the review of the existing free trade agreement in goods signed in 2009, and the talks are moving "very" slowly, an official said on Monday.

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

"So far, nine rounds of talks have been completed. They are going very slow. Very less progress is there. Asean is stonewalling the talks," the official, who did not wish to be named, said.

After the implementation of the agreement, India's exports stood at only about $ 38-39 billion annually, while imports from the 10-nation Asean bloc have jumped to $ 86 billion, the official added.

Asean countries have opened less number of tariff lines or product categories for India. India has offered duty concessions on over 71 per cent of the tariff of lines to Asean countries.

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

Indonesia has opened 41 per cent of its tariff lines, Vietnam 66.5 per cent and Thailand 67 per cent.

"Is this a good agreement," the official wondered.

The official added that the Indian industry is not at all happy with the agreement.

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 in goods by 2025.

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

India is asking for a review to eliminate barriers and misuse of the pact.

Recently speaking at the India Global Forum (IGF) session on UK-India Science, Technology and Innovation Collaboration at the Science Museum in London, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said, "There was a point of time 15 years ago when we were more focused on doing FTAs with countries who were our competitors. So if I am doing an ASEAN agreement, it really is silly because (that is) opening up my market to my competitors, many of whom have now become the B team of China".

"So effectively and indirectly, I have opened up my market for goods that find their way from China into India," the commerce minister has said.