Putrajaya meeting reviews AITIGA to make it more trade-facilitative
The upgradation of ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) will further boost bilateral trade, which stood at US$122.67 billion in 2023-24, the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said on 12 May after the conclusion of 4th Meeting of ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement Joint Committee.
Both sides would next meet for the 5th Joint Committee meeting from 29-31 July 2024 in Jakarta, following on the 7-9 May meeting held in Putrajaya, Malaysia https://asean.org/ .
The meeting was co-chaired by Rajesh Agrawal, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, India https://commerce.gov.in/ , and Mastura Ahmad Mustafa, Deputy Secretary General (Trade), Ministry of Investment, Trade & Industry, Malaysia https://www.miti.gov.my/index.php .
Delegates from India and all 10 ASEAN countries participated in the discussions.
The discussions for review of AITIGA, to make it more trade-facilitative and beneficial for businesses across the region, started in May 2023 https://fieo.org/ .
The Joint Committee undertaking the review work has met four times so far.
The Joint Committee finalised its Terms of Reference and the Negotiating Structure for the review negotiations in its first two meetings and initiated the negotiations for review of AITIGA from its third meeting held from 18-19 February 2024 in New Delhi.
A total of 8 Sub-Committees have been constituted for dealing with different policy areas of the Agreement in the review and out of these, 5 Sub-Committees have started their discussions.
All the 5 Sub-Committee reported the outcomes of their discussions to the 4th AITIGA Joint Committee. Four of these Sub-Committees dealing with ‘National Treatment and Market Access’, ‘Rules of Origin’, ‘Standards, Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment Procedures’ and ‘Legal and Institutional Issues’ also met physically in Putrajaya, alongside the 4th AITIGA Joint Committee.
The Sub-Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary had met earlier on 3rd May 2024. The Joint Committee provided necessary guidance to the Sub-Committees. Fiinews.com
