India, ASEAN Negotiators Push to Expedite Review of Free Trade Agreement

Joint committee asks sub-panels to fast-track pending chapters of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement review after missing the December 2025 deadline.

Negotiators from India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have instructed their teams to speed up negotiations on the review of the free trade agreement (FTA) after the original deadline of December 2025 was not met. The joint committee responsible for overseeing the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) called on its sub-panels to accelerate negotiations during its 13th meeting, the commerce ministry said on Wednesday.

“The joint committee provided strategic guidance to the sub-committees in their respective areas of work and urged them to expedite the finalisation of the outstanding chapters under the AITIGA review,” the ministry said.

The five-day joint committee meeting, which began on Monday, will conclude on Friday.

“To maintain the momentum of negotiations, the sub-committees were assigned time-bound deliverables and encouraged to work closely towards achieving tangible outcomes within the agreed timelines,” the ministry added.

According to the ministry, meetings of three of the eight sub-committees are taking place alongside the joint committee meeting. These discussions cover customs procedures and trade facilitation, national treatment and market access, and rules of origin.

The review of AITIGA, which came into force in 2010, remains a priority for New Delhi as it seeks to address its widening trade imbalance with the Asean bloc. Since the agreement took effect, India's imports from Asean have nearly quadrupled, while its exports have not doubled over the past 16 years.

India's trade deficit with Asean increased to over $50 billion in 2025, compared with over $5 billion in 2009, the year before the FTA came into force.

Trade experts, however, argue that India should focus on strengthening export competitiveness rather than depending on the FTA review to reduce the trade deficit.

“The objective of an FTA review is to deepen trade liberalisation, not restrict it. India’s trade deficit with many FTA partners tends to widen because its import duties are generally higher than those of its partners, giving them a greater tariff advantage once the pact comes into force,” said Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Delhi-based Global Trade Research Initiative.

He added that a significant share of India's imports from Asean consists of raw materials and intermediate goods used in manufacturing export products.

“As a result, curbing imports from the bloc may not be the most effective way to address the trade imbalance.”

India's Trade with Asean ($ Billion)

Source: Department of Commerce, World Integrated Trade Solution