Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal holds bilateral meeting with Indonesian Minister of Trade Enggartiasto Lukita

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal held a bilateral meeting with Indonesian Minister of Trade Enggartiasto Lukita in New Delhi yesterday and agreed to work towards sustainable trade. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Troika Meeting with ASEAN Trade Ministers.

Mr. Goyal raised concerns about India's trade deficit with Indonesia that stood at 10.57 billion US Dollars last financial year. He said that the balance of trade is heavily in favour of Indonesia and both countries need to work towards establishing sustainable trade by diversifying the export



basket.

Mr Goyal also said that there is considerable potential for expanding trade in agricultural, automobiles, engineering products, IT, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and healthcare sectors. He noted that with a bilateral trade of 21.13 billion US Dollars in 2018-19, Indonesia has emerged as the second largest trading partner of India in the ASEAN region after Singapore.

The Indonesian side also assured India that it will facilitate the sourcing of sugar from India by reducing tariffs and regularising standards as per India's requirement.