India Accelerates Trade Negotiations with ASEAN and Australia
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed on Friday that India is actively engaged with ASEAN partners to review and upgrade the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA). Simultaneously, negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with Australia are advancing. The announcements were made during a special briefing ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming visit to Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand.
AITIGA Review: A Multilateral Effort
Secretary (East) in the MEA, Rudrendra Tandon, emphasized that the AITIGA review is a multilateral process requiring consensus among all ten ASEAN member states. He stated, "It's a multilateral agreement, so it requires all ASEAN countries together. We of course discussed with all our ASEAN partners about the importance of upgrading, reviewing the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement, which is a very old agreement and probably does not reflect the structures of the economies either in India or in ASEAN."
Tandon noted that the original agreement includes varying levels of tariff concessions among participating countries. The ongoing review aims to further liberalize trade, with Tandon explaining, "The review process will try to bring about greater liberalisation on both sides. But mind you, this is a multilateral agreement. So it will be everyone together; we do have continuous conversations with all the significant economies in the ASEAN region, because naturally the negotiations with them will be critical in getting the review process through. But simultaneously, we are also pursuing an upgradation of ties bilaterally, which is, again, a continuous process."
Progress on India-Australia CECA
Joint Secretary (Oceania) Vishwesh Negi provided an update on trade talks with Australia. He recalled that India and Australia signed the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) in 2022 and are now working toward a balanced CECA. Negi said, "As you all are aware, in 2022, India and Australia had signed the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement. Now the effort on the two sides is to finalise a balanced, comprehensive economic cooperation agreement. This is being finalised and negotiated by the Ministry of Commerce."
He added, "We are expecting a balanced document to be adopted on both sides, and our teams are closely engaged. We are working with the Ministry of Commerce on that. So the further rounds of negotiations between our chief negotiators are happening soon."
Prime Minister Modi's Three-Nation Tour
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Indonesia on July 8-9, Australia on July 10, and New Zealand on July 11. The Indonesia leg will focus on reviewing the bilateral partnership. In Australia, PM Modi will participate in the third India-Australia Annual Summit. The New Zealand visit marks the first by an Indian Prime Minister in forty years, underscoring the significance of the trip for bilateral ties.
