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The India-Vietnam Joint Trade Sub-Commission (JTSC) held its fifth meeting, according to the ministry of commerce and industry, with the goal of strengthening their bilateral trade and economic ties. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic and other circumstances, this summit was convened after a hiatus of more than four years. Rajesh Agrawal, the assistant secretary for the department of commerce in the ministry of commerce and industry, and Phan Thi Thang, the deputy minister for the ministry of industry and trade in Vietnam, co-chaired the meeting.
As per the ministry, the two sides discussed how to tap into the enormous untapped potential in bilateral trade so that the business communities on both sides could benefit from the alliance of two of the world's fastest-growing economies. They also reviewed the progress on bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
“Both sides identified potential sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, textiles, footwear, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, fertilizers, machinery and equipment, consumer products, energy and automobile industry, for expanding trade cooperation and agreed to work together to resolve market access issues and technical barriers faced by the exporters through regular and sustained bilateral discussions," it added.
The Indian side brought up the unregistered fisheries and meat processing plants in India, the restricted market access for Indian pharmaceutical enterprises in public medication procurement, and the high anti-dumping charges imposed on sorbitol and polyster filament yarn goods made in India. The Indian side emphasized the possibilities for service sector collaboration and recommended collaboration in IT, financial services, the education sector, tourism, healthcare, telemedicine, medical tourism, and start-up ecosystem.
Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) on professional services, internationalization of the RuPay card, QR-based payment systems, and domestic currency trade settlement were further suggestions made by the Indian side.