ASEAN centrality remains a core principle of India’s Indo-Pacific Initiative, but the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (2010) is widely seen as a one-way arrangement. Examine the case for and against an AITIGA review.

Introduction: ASEAN-India trade grew from $73 billion (2017-18) to $122 billion (2023-24), but India's trade deficit with ASEAN ballooned to $44 billion, leading to a formal AITIGA review launched in May 2023 under the Act East framework.

Body: Three dimensions weigh the case for review. First, strategic value — the Act East Policy (2014), the ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership (2022) and the Look East-to-Act East shift make ASEAN central to India's Indo-Pacific Initiative (IPOI 2019). Second, AITIGA gaps — laxity in rules of origin lets Chinese goods route through ASEAN at preferential tariffs; non-tariff barriers obstruct Indian agricultural exports; the services and investment chapter is excluded. Third, Indo-Pacific framing — the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (2019) and India's IPOI seven pillars overlap on maritime ecology, connectivity and capacity-building.

Conclusion: Conclude the AITIGA review with strict rules of origin, add a services-investment chapter, link to IPEF supply chains and operationalise the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway.