India seeking fair market access ahead of the India-Asean FTA review

India aims to modernise and update the deal to align with current times, considering that the trade agreement was signed over a decade ago

Last year, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal called the free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nations an “ill-conceived” agreement and “unfair” to the Indian industry at a public forum.

Goyal’s remark was a reflection of the inordinate delay in the review of the pact with ASEAN–comprising Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam – that came into force in January 2010. FTAs are generally reviewed within a year or two of its implementation, especially to resolve differences, if any.

India, for more than half a