NEW DELHI: The commerce ministry is working overtime to chalk out its agenda ahead of the visit of the leaders of 10 Asean countries as chief guests for the Republic Day. According to sources, India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway and the Dawei sea project will be the top agenda during the talks.
“This is part of the government’s Act East Policy. From our part, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will be an important area of discussion. The progress is very slow in this regard. We need a greater market access in service in this region and the response had been very lukewarm,” said a senior official from the ministry.
RCEP is a mega-regional free trade agreement that involves the 10-member Asean bloc and its six FTA partners -- India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. However, sources say there’s not much progress in this regard and India’s demand for ease of norms on the movement of professionals has got a cold response from these countries. In response, India was reluctant to open up its market for traded goods.
The proposed India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway is expected to help in connecting South Asia with Southeast Asia. “India is also seeking a link to Dawai port,” said the commerce ministry official.
Myanmar and Thailand are jointly developing a deep-sea port and special economic zone at Dawai, a port city in Myanmar with investment of $8 billion. India is seeking to connect the port with Chennai, which, if implemented, will give a major boost to India’s trade to Southeast Asia.
Another area of concern is the sharp drop in exports of agricultural products, which faced high import tariffs and barriers. India will raise the issue of quality norms of imports of processed food from ASEAN countries. “These issues were already raised by trade representatives of agriculture and food processing sector,” the official added.
Asean comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam completed 50 years of its formation in 2017 and 25 years of partnership with India.