Context: Business communities of India and the ASEAN should work to resolve their differences, remove non-tariff barriers and ensure sanctity of rules of origin and open markets to expand two-way trade.

Details:

• Both sides needed to work together to further this relationship as two-way trade was witnessing signs of decline, from $81 billion to $77 billion.
• India and ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) have not been able to harness the full trade potential for various reasons, but that now was the time to expand trade, address concerns and resolve differences.
• Problems that do not resolve in a quick time frame have the risk of expanding and “sometimes growing beyond control, beyond repair”. So businesses of both the sides should work together, embrace each other, and embrace each other’s problems to resolve them.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations:

• The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is a regional intergovernmental organization comprising ten countries in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and socio-cultural integration among its members and other countries in Asia.
• Secretariat-Jakarta

Reference: https://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/india-asean-must-shed-non-tariff-barriers-goyal/article32460453.ece#:~:text=Share%20Article-,'Need%20to%20fix%20declining%20trend%20of%20trade',Piyush%20Goyal%20said%20on%20Thursday.

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