ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement
Also called: AITIGA · Topic: International Trade Policy, WTO and Intellectual Property · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) is a free trade agreement (FTA): a deal in which partners remove tariffs (taxes on imports) on most of the goods they trade with each other. It is between India and the ten members of ASEAN, the Southeast Asian regional group. It came into force in 2010 and covers goods only, not services or investment. India began a review of it in 2023 because its trade deficit with ASEAN had grown sharply. A trade deficit means a country imports more than it exports. India also worries about rules of origin, the tests that decide which country a product really comes from. If those rules are weak, goods made elsewhere can enter India duty-free through an ASEAN member.
Example
India's trade deficit with ASEAN reached about US$44 billion in 2023-24. To stop Chinese goods being routed through ASEAN partners to claim AITIGA tariff cuts, India brought in the CAROTAR 2020 rules. Under these rules, the importer must prove where the goods come from.
Don't confuse with
- RCEP: a much larger deal with 15 members, made up of ASEAN plus China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. India walked out of it in November 2019, but AITIGA stays in force.
- India–Singapore CECA (2005) and India–Malaysia CECA (2011): separate deals between India and a single ASEAN country. Each one also covers some services and investment, not only goods.