18 countries including India, China, and America took part in the East Asia Summit. The economic and trade ministers of 18 nations agreed that the new trade-restrictive measures addressed to handle the COVID-19 crisis must be transparent and temporary. The participants made it clear with the statement that they don’t want further redundant barriers or disturbance in the global and regional supply chains that can create conundrums for global businesses. The eighth East Asia Summit Ministers’ Meeting (EAS-EMM) was held virtually on August 28, 2020, and the ministers emphasized on the statement to focus on trade rules according to how COVID-19 impacted on it.
Economic and industry ministers from 10 ASEAN-member countries like Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Russia, and the US participated in the discussion.
Indian Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal share his cogitation in the summit as well.
According to joint decisions taken at the summit, the importance of facilitating the indispensable movement of people across borders did not completely remain unrecognized. They were eager to standardize the trade and investments without ignoring the effort each country is putting to avoid the spread of contamination. The hackle in the trading world due to the impact of the pandemic did not go unnoticed in the deliberations of the ministers.
“The ministers agreed that any trade restrictive emergency measures put in place to address the impact of COVID-19 must be targeted, proportionate, transparent, temporary, consistent with WTO (World Trade Organisation) rules and do not create unnecessary barriers to trade or disruption of global and regional supply chains,” the statement was published after the summit.
The participating ministers of different 18 countries contemplated on how to accentuate the economy at present and keeping the global supply chains intact to ensure the stability in the market. They discussed the strength and resilience of the economy in the post-COVID-19 space.
“The ministers reiterated their support for the necessary reform of the WTO. The ministers will continue to work together to realize a free, fair, transparent, non-discriminatory, predictable, and stable trade environment, and affirmed the importance of agreed upon rules in the WTO, which can enhance market predictability and business confidence,” it added.
Many crucial ideas were depicted at the summit that put more stress on how to utilize the bigger window of the digital economy. India and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) are vital trading partners.
