Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, Piyush Goyal, held a bilateral meeting with Indonesian Minister of Trade, Enggartiasto Lukita in New Delhi yesterday. Piyush Goyal raised concerns about India’s trade deficit with Indonesia which stood at USD 10.57 billion in India’s trade deficit with Indonesia during 2018-19. He said that the balance of trade is heavily in favor of Indonesia and both countries need to work towards establishing sustainable trade by diversifying the export basket.

The Commerce & Industry said that there is 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.

Piyush Goyal 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 (CBU) and tyres. These restricted import quota prescribed by Indonesia for Indian vehicles in CBU condition has adversely impacted Indian exports. Long lead time taken for regulatory certification for new vehicles also affects launch of new products. Indonesia adopts standards for emission which is not commensurate with the global emission norms for fuel efficiency in automobiles.