ASEAN digital pact offers India model for deeper Southeast Asia ties: Report
New Delhi, Aug 18
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Digital Economy Framework Agreement provides India a blueprint for deeper digital engagement with Southeast Asia, a new report has said.
The blueprint gave ASEAN "managed interoperability" with common commercial outcomes and compatible systems across countries, alleviating the need for similar domestic laws. the report from The Jakarta Post said.
ASEAN's new Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) creates a region‑wide architecture for digital trade and services, but incorporating it into ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) would be counterproductive, the report said.
"Incorporating the DEFA into the AITIGA would be counterproductive, broadening a goods-focused negotiation at a late stage while drawing in unresolved questions concerning data governance, privacy, competition and online regulation," it added.
However, the publication warned that reducing the digital economy to an aspiration would be equally misguided.
The DEFA, concluded in Manila in May, covers nine areas including digital trade, cross‑border e‑commerce, payments and e‑invoicing, digital identity, cross‑border data flows and data protection, online safety, cybersecurity and emerging technologies.
ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) is still a trade-in-goods agreement. Its review has focused on market access, rules of origin, customs and trade facilitation, standards, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, trade remedies, and legal and institutional provisions.
ASEAN and India targets conclusion of the review in 2026, and the negotiations remain shaped by New Delhi's concern over its goods deficit and ASEAN's demand for a simpler and more trade-facilitative agreement.
The negotiated text of DEFA is not yet public, and the depth, exceptions and enforceability of commitments will only be clear after signature, it added.
Rather than legal uniformity, ASEAN has achieved what the publication called "managed interoperability" and it allows countries with different regulatory capacities to cooperate through flexibility, phased implementation and capacity building.
The DEFA builds on earlier ASEAN work, including the 2019 ASEAN Agreement on Electronic Commerce, which came into force in 2021.
The 2019 ASEAN Agreement committed members to facilitate electronic transactions while recognising differing domestic laws and regulatory development.
"ASEAN has since advanced interoperable payments, electronic documents, digital identities and voluntary guidance on artificial intelligence. The DEFA extends this architecture rather than creating it from scratch," the report noted.
— IANS
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