
Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has sharply criticised India’s past trade strategy with ASEAN nations, calling the approach “silly” and describing the bloc as the “B-team of China”.
Speaking at the India Global Forum in the United Kingdom, Goyal suggested that earlier governments had prioritised trade agreements with competitors rather than with complementary economies. Without naming the Congress-led UPA government, he said India was “more focused on doing trade agreements with countries who were our competitors” instead of pursuing mutually beneficial partnerships.
Goyal specifically pointed to the ASEAN–India Free Trade Agreement (AIFTA), signed in 2010, as an example of this flawed approach. “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,” he said.
He also alleged that ASEAN countries were being used as a channel for Chinese goods to enter India by bypassing rules of origin. “The bloc had become the B-team of China,” Goyal said, referring to the concern that Beijing has been exploiting the AIFTA framework to route products through ASEAN nations.
In contrast, Goyal highlighted the current government’s focus on trade partnerships with developed economies. “Instead of that, we’re focusing on Australia and New Zealand, which will take another three to four months,” he added, signalling the ongoing negotiations with these countries.
India has recently concluded trade agreements with the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, and is engaged in active negotiations with several others, including the United States, European Union (EU), Australia, and New Zealand.
In addition, India is in talks with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which comprises Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, as well as with South American countries Chile and Peru.
The issue of Chinese-origin goods entering the Indian market through ASEAN countries has been a long-standing concern, further fuelling criticism that the pact has not served India’s strategic or economic interests effectively.