Business communities of India and ASEAN should work to resolve their differences, remove non-tariff barriers, ensure sanctity of rules of origin and open markets to expand two-way trade, Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on August 27.

Addressing the ASEAN-India Business Council, Goyal said both the sides need to work together to further advance the bilateral relationship as two-way trade is witnessing signs of decline from 81 billion USD to 77 billion USD.

It is probably the first time the two countries saw a 5-percent de-growth, he said.

He said India and ASEAN have not been able to harness the full trade potential for various reasons, but now is the time to expand trade, address concerns and resolve differences.

Goyal said it is important that businesses of both sides work to resolve differences, create a more valuable and trusted regional value chains, remove the non-tariff barriers on both sides, ensure sanctity of rules of origin, and open markets to expand trade, as people say, “it takes two hands to clap”.

Goyal highly spoke of the business council meeting, saying it is a good forum to discuss concerns and best practices, share ideas, and flag the problems.

The Indian minister said the two sides have not yet been able to start the review of free trade agreement in goods.

Two-way trade has increased from 57 billion USD in 2010 to only 77 billion USD in about nearly 9-10 years, which does not present an exciting picture, Goyal said.

Source: Vietnam Plus

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