&w=3840&q=100)
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
16 minutes ago
- Time of India
'Israel achieved its goals': Netanyahu accepts Trump's proposal for truce with Iran; warns of 'forceful response' if agreement violated
Benjamin Netanyahu Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday accepted the ceasefire plan proposed by US President Donald Trump to end the Asian rivals' military conflict, which began on June 13 with Israel's strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities. Also Read: Donald Trump pulls off an India-Pakistan on Israel-Iran, forcing ceasefire Netanyahu said Israel fulfilled all of its objectives and warned there would be a "forceful" response to any violation of the truce. "I reported to our security cabinet that Israel achieved all of our war goals in the operation, including removing the threat of Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Israel also damaged Iran's military leadership and several government sites and achieved control over Tehran's skies," news agency AP quoted him as saying. The acceptance by both sides of the deal came after Tehran launched a final onslaught of missiles targeting the Jewish State, killing at least four people early Tuesday morning, while Israel launched a blitz of airstrikes targeting sites across the Islamic Republic before dawn. Meanwhile, writing over an hour after a deadline passed for Iran to halt its attacks, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: 'THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!' Also Read: Trump makes new claim on ceasefire; Tehran says he 'begged for it' According to Iranian state TV, the ceasefire went into effect at 7:30 am local time. Earlier, in a dramatic escalation on Sunday, the US entered the conflict between its ally Israel and their common foe Iran, by bombing three key Iranian nuclear sites. Tehran retaliated by conducting missile strikes on an American air base in Qatar, the United States' largest such facility in the region.
Mint
17 minutes ago
- Mint
Why did Adani Enterprises, Adani Power and other Adani group stocks jump up to 5% today? Explained
Adani Group Stocks in Focus Today: Adani Group stocks, including Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy, and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone, were buzzing in Tuesday's trade (June 24), gaining up to 5%, mirroring the positive sentiment in the Indian stock market. Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone emerged as the top gainer among the group stocks, rising 5% to hit the day's high of ₹ 1,418.45 apiece, extending its winning run to the third straight day. Adani Green Energy also maintained its three-day winning streak, jumping another 4.3% to reach ₹ 1,001.95 apiece. Other group stocks, including Adani Enterprises, Adani Power, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Total Gas, AWL Agri Business, ACC, Ambuja Cements, NDTV, and Sanghi Industries, rose between 1% and 4% in today's session. Earlier, Adani Group stocks came under pressure as rising tensions between Iran and Israel sparked concerns that Haifa Port—where Adani Ports holds a 70% stake acquired in 2023 for $1.2 billion in partnership with Israel's Gadot Group—could be targeted by Iranian missile strikes. However, tensions later eased after the Adani Group clarified that there was no damage to port operations. The optimism across Adani Group stocks followed remarks made by Group Chairman Gautam Adani at the 2025 Annual General Meeting, where he announced that the group plans to invest between $15 billion and $20 billion annually across various businesses over the next five years. 'We anticipate an annual capex spend of $15–20 billion for the next five years. These are not just investments in our group but investments in the possibilities for doing our part to build India's infrastructure,' Adani said. He highlighted key milestones across the group's businesses, stating that Adani Power has crossed 100 billion units of electricity generation and is well on track to reach 31 GW capacity by 2030. He further noted that Adani Green is building the world's largest renewable energy park in Khavda, with the group targeting 50 GW of capacity by 2030, proving that 'scale and sustainability can coexist.' Speaking on the group's contribution to national security, Adani said, 'During Operation Sindoor, Adani Defence's drones became the eyes in the skies as well as the swords of attack, and our anti-drone systems helped protect our forces and citizens.' He also highlighted achievements in the clean energy and gas segments, mentioning that Adani Total Gas now serves 1 million PNG customers and operates 3,400 EV charging stations across 22 states. In the cement business, Adani announced that ACC and Ambuja Cements have collectively achieved 100 million tons of cement production in a year and are aiming to reach 140 million tons by FY28. Meanwhile, Adani Airports Holdings Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Ltd. and India's largest private airport operator, has successfully secured USD 1 billion in financing through a project. finance structure for its Mumbai International Airport Ltd. (MIAL), the company said in its Tuesday regulatory filing. The company claimed that it was India's first investment grade (IG) rated private bond issuance in the airport infrastructure sector. This issuance follows AAHL's USD 750 million financing from a consortium of global banks. MIAL is run through a public-private partnership between AAHL, which holds a majority stake of 74%, and the Airports Authority of India, which owns the other 26%. Adani's conglomerate, which has interests stretching from ports to green energy, has been regaining creditor confidence after the US indicted Adani last November for an alleged bribery plot. In May, the Life Insurance Corp. of India was the sole subscriber to Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd.'s record 50 billion rupee ($585 million) 15-year bond sale. Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
Time of India
18 minutes ago
- Time of India
Working with suppliers to achieve target of $10-bn sourcing from India: Walmart CEO
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel US-based retail giant Walmart is working with suppliers in India to meet its target of sourcing USD 10-billion goods from India for its operations worldwide, its global CEO Doug McMillon said here on has increased sourcing from India over the years, and it is excited with the progress made, he said."....over the years, you can see how the story is unfolding, and it's really broadening and becoming much more interesting," he December 2020, the Bentonville-headquartered retail giant announced a goal to source USD 10-billion products from India by 2027, aiming to boost exports in apparel, food, toys, and other categories."At the beginning, we were sourcing products here with limited categories, but we were excited to get started... look what's happened in our sourcing business."It's grown a lot, and now we have this goal of getting to USD 10 billion a year, which is a really big number, and together with the supplier community, we're working to achieve that," he who is on a two-day India tour, also had a walk-through here that highlighted Walmart's India growth story, covering exports, digital innovation, building inclusive supply chains and empowering he interacted with some of the sellers, who were trained under its supplier development programme, Walmart Vriddhi On its e-commerce arm Flipkart and digital payments solution PhonePe, McMillon said, "What our teams have done to grow those businesses over the years has been inspiring.""We are really learning a lot from those businesses, the ability to innovate, the ability to move with speed, the ability to serve more and more customers, to develop sellers, to build an e-commerce marketplace, business that has just a really bright future and the chance to create a lot of opportunities for everyone," he PhonePe, McMillon said the financial services businesses, already reaches a lot of people "and helps us make things more efficient easier"."We are very proud of what's happening with the bumblebee business... I'm really excited to hear about the work that's happening with agriculture," he year, Walmart said it had sourced goods worth over USD 30 billion from the Indian market in the last two decades for its global operations. Walmart is in India for over two Global Sourcing set up office in Bengaluru in 2002, enabling Indian manufacturers to export to the US, Canada, Mexico, central America, and the UK, supplying products to Walmart this month, Walmart said it is connecting with one lakh more micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the next three years in its supplier development programme in India, Walmart its Vriddhi initiatives, Walmart is empowering the Indian MSMEs with critical business skills and market access, which has helped them to scale their business sustainably and contribute to India's economic growth in 2019, Walmart Vriddhi has trained over 70,000 MSMEs so far by enabling access to digital commerce, personalised mentorship and strategic by the success of Vriddhi initiatives in India, Walmart has launched similar supplier development initiatives in Mexico (Crece con Walmart) and its home turf, the US (Grow with US).
