India-Thailand holds 13th trade committee meeting in New Delhi

New Delhi: The 13th Meeting of India Thailand Joint Trade Committee (JTC) was held today in New Delhi. The meeting was co-chaired by the Director General of Department of Trade Negotiations, Ministry of Commerce of Thailand, Auramon Supthaweethum and Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, India Indu C. Nair. This was the first physical meeting of the JTC after it was revived in 2020, after 17 years.

Thailand is India’s important trading partner in ASEAN with total trade of USD 16.89 Billion in 2022-23. Thailand accounts for 13.6% of India’s total trade with ASEAN. Thailand is an important destination for India’s gems and jewellery, mechanical machinery, auto and auto components and agricultural products, especially marine products.

Reviewing the status of bilateral trade and each partner’s modest share in the other’s global imports, the chairs emphasised the need for identifying new potential products and priority sectors for expanding the bilateral trade. Both sides also discussed various market access issues and technical barriers faced by their exporters and agreed to resolve the same through regular and sustained bilateral discussions. India raised the restriction faced in its export of marine, poultry and meat products.

Both sides identified a range of potential commodities and sectors for strengthened partnership such as value-added marine products, smartphones, Electric vehicles, food processing and pharmaceuticals. The countries also agreed that there is huge scope in collaboration in the Service Sector and agreed to explore establishing mutual recognition/cooperation arrangements in Nursing, Accounting, Audio Visual and Medical Tourism.

The meeting also reviewed the progress of the ongoing efforts on connecting the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) of India with the Prompt Pay Service of Thailand and the settlement of trade transactions in local currency.