Piyush Goyal suggests a rethink on BIMSTEC FTA

New Delhi: Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday suggested the seven member countries of the BIMSTEC bloc to relook and re-examine the proposed free trade agreement, the talks for which have been slow and instead suggested negotiating a preferential trade agreement
which could then be fast tracked to a full fledged free trade pact. At the CII BIMSTEC Business Summit 2024, he also suggested looking at local currency trade in the bloc so as to balance out the trade imbalances.

BIMSTEC, or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation is a grouping of countries in South Asia and South East Asia – Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.


“I would like to raise a few fundamental issues about where we stand and what are the possibilities of making this FTA a reality,” Goyal said as 21 rounds of talks have taken place since 2004 and the last round was in 2018.

“This itself raises a question on whether we need to pause and have a relook at the track where we are going,” he said, adding that the last round of negotiations took place some six years ago, which means something is holding back this FTA.

As per the minister, the reasons for slow progress can be the non-trade barriers or trade barriers coming in the way of normal trade and the possible impact of other regional FTAs on the BIMSTEC region.

“It could be the trade practices or current trade relationships that could be a reason for this FTA not taking place,” Goyal said.

He also asked the business leaders of the seven member countries to think whether they need this agreement.

“I would urge business leaders also to give an honest feedback of what you feel about the potential BIMSTEC FTA. Do you see merit in it, do you see value in it,” he said.