New Delhi: Congress leader Anand Sharma on Friday hit back at the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, saying that Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s remarks on the India-ASEAN Trade Agreements are “unwarranted”.
“The commerce minister’s statement belittling India-ASEAN Trade Agreements is unwarranted, ill-advised and unfortunate,” Sharma, who is also a former union commerce and industry minister, said, adding that India and the ASEAN countries have, for over three decades, engaged in a multifaceted relationship that has been mutually rewarding and significant.
He also stressed that this is an integral part of the Look East policy to deepen and diversify India’s relations with a region that is economically vibrant and of enormous geostrategic importance for engagement with the Asia–Pacific region.
Sharma highlighted that successive Indian governments have consciously pursued this policy and elevated India–ASEAN relations to a strategic partnership.
India is also a member of the East Asia Summit (EAS) of ASEAN + six (Japan, India, South Korea, China, Australia and New Zealand).
Stressing that Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia are strategic partner countries, Sharma further said, “Piyush Goyal’s statement terming the Trade agreement with ASEAN as silly and labelling these countries as the ‘B team of China’ is irresponsible and insulting.”
“He (Goyal) has forgotten that President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto was the chief guest for the 2025 Republic Day Parade,” the Congress leader said.
The CECA (Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement) with ASEAN and Trade agreements with Japan and South Korea are aimed at promoting Investments and trade in goods and services.
The agreements were negotiated, considering India’s interests in the region. There are inbuilt checks and review mechanisms in all trade agreements that New Delhi has signed.
The Congress leader pointed out that trade in goods with ASEAN countries also includes essential imports: Iron ore and Coal from Indonesia, Palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia, Oil and petroleum products from Brunei and Malaysia, and pulses from Myanmar.
“Piyush Goyal needs to be reminded of the fundamental rule of trade: ‘No country can export what it does not produce nor import what it does not need,'” Sharma said, while insisting that it needs to be mentioned that ASEAN is India’s fourth-largest trading partner, accounting for over 11 percent of India’s total global trade, with bilateral trade at 120 billion USD and accounts for over 11 percent of India’s Exports.
He also said FDI inflows from ASEAN to India account for over 18 percent of the total FDI inflows since 2000.
“In an interconnected and interdependent world, partnerships are the way forward and not exclusion and isolation,” Sharma stated.
He also said that the Commerce Minister should prioritise strengthening trade relations with partner countries and not insult them while bending backwards to negotiate a “suboptimal trade agreement” with the US on its terms.
