Asean is China’s B-team, India has no interest in having a trade deal with them: Piyush Goyal

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has slammed Asean countries as the “B-team of China” and has dubbed trade deals with them as “silly”.

Goyal’s remarks have come at a time when India is holding trade negotiations with various countries and blocs, such as the United States, European Union (EU), Australia, and New Zealand. In recent time, India has signed trade deals with the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Speaking at the India Global Forum in the UK, Goyal said in an apparent swipe at the previous Congress-led government that India was “more focused on doing trade agreements with countries who were our competitors” instead of building complementary partnerships, according to NDTV Profit.

Goyal called such an approach “silly”. He included the India-Asean trade agreement among such deals and said members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc were “B-team of China'.

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“If I do an ASEAN agreement with Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, it really is silly, because I’m opening up my market to my competitors,” said Goyal.

In an apparent reference to the issue of China manipulating country of origin norms by routing its goods via Asean countries, Goyal said that the bloc had become the “B-Team of China”.

Goyal further said, “Instead of that, we’re focusing on Australia and New Zealand, which will take another three to four months.”

India and Asean signed the ASEAN–India Free Trade Area (AIFTA) in 2010. While the agreement led to the increase in trade by volume, the balance of trade remains heavily in favour of Asean countries. Coupled with the issue of China gaming the trade pact, the AIFTA has often drawn criticism about not being as beneficial to India as envisioned.

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Besides the United States, EU, Australia, and New Zealand, India is currently also negotiating trade deals with the trading bloc European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which comprises Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland. India is also holding trade talks with Chile and Peru.