Balance of Trade, a point of concern! India Indonesia exchange views to considerably expand trade in various sectors

News Bharati    10-Jul-2019
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New Delhi, July 10: Raising the concerns about India’s trade deficit with Indonesia which stood at USD 10.57 billion during 2018-19, Piyush Goyal said that the balance of trade was heavily in favor of Indonesia and that both the countries needed to work towards establishing sustainable trade by diversifying the export basket.
 
Having bilateral talks with Indonesian Minister of Trade, Enggartiasto Lukita in New Delhi today, Goyal added further that there was considerable potential for expanding trade in agricultural, automobiles, engineering products, IT, pharmaceuticals, bio-technology and healthcare sectors.
 
 
With a bilateral trade of USD 21.13 billion in 2018-19, Indonesia has emerged as the second largest trading partner of India in the ASEAN region after Singapore.
 
He also highlighted India’s concern on the import quota restrictions faced by Indian auto and auto component industries in Indonesia on completely built up units and tyres. “These restricted import quota prescribed by Indonesia for Indian vehicles in CBU condition has adversely impacted Indian exports”, he said while addressing the delegates on sidelines of Troika Meeting with ASEAN Trade Ministers
 
Further, Commerce Minister reiterated the potential for enhanced cooperation on health and pharma sector between the two countries to which the Indonesian trade minister assured that he will take up the issue with Indonesian importers to source high quality and cost effective pharma products from India.
 
The Indonesian side also assured India that it will facilitate sourcing of sugar from India by reducing tariffs and regularizing standards as per India’s requirement, further requesting for parity on duty with Malaysian exports of refined palm oil with India where it is currently suffering 5% disadvantage.