India-ASEAN trade deal ill conceived: Goyal
Live MintIndia-ASEAN trade deal signed under the UPA era is one of the most ill-conceived deals, commerce minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday at an industry event. India mostly imports capital goods, raw materials and intermediates from Asean, the tariff concessions under the free trade agreements have also been advantageous to many sectors and adversely impacted domestic companies, especially chemicals and metals manufacturers. Goyal also said that in the free trade agreements with Japan and Korea, India has opened its markets for the two countries, but they have not allowed Indian exports to their country. Imports too have risen to USD 87.57 billion in 2022-23 from USD 68 billion in 2021-22.The ten Asean members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.