Asean FTA blues

India must ensure that this deal works to its advantage at the 10th review meeting

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HEAD OF THE 10th review meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITGA), there is a buzz within India Inc and the ruling dispensation to exit the deal. This would not be in India's strategic interests as this free trade agreement (FTA) inked in 2010 is foundational to its Look East policy and pivot to the prosperous Indo-Pacific region. The National Democratic Alliance regime, however, has been ambivalent about the benefits of AITGA and the trade deals with South Korea and Japan inked by the previous United Progressive Alliance regime. Despite a two-fold rise in trade in goods to $123 billion in 2024-25, there are deep misgivings over the AITGA as it resulted in a nine-fold increase in our trade deficit to $45.2 billion. The concerns are similar to what India had in opting out of the Sinocentric Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), notably that it was a deal with China by stealth. In this regard, the statement of commerce & industry minister Piyush Goyal