Bilateral Trade Agreement Between
India and Burma
Presented by
Raj Pintu Gowalla
Roll No.22
Bilateral Trade Agreement
Bilateral Trade Agreements is the trade agreement
between two nations at a time. They are fairly easy to
negotiate, and give those two nations favoured trading
status between each other.
India-Burma Relations
India and Burma share a long land border of over 1600 km.A large
population of Indian origin (about 2.5 million) lives in Burma. India and
Burma signed a Treaty of Friendship in 1951.Burma is the gateway to
India’s ‘Look East’ policy. India is engaged in several river and land-based
projects in Burma. The India-Myanmar gas pipeline project is one of the
important area where India is deeply involved in Myanmar.
India recently signed three important agreements with Myanmar;
exploration of natural gas, satellite-based remote sensing and promotion of
Buddhist studies in Myanmar. New Delhi is also looking for joint
cooperation with Myanmar in several other fields including IT,
automobile, textiles, and agro-based industries.
India-Burma Trade Agreement
Bilateral relations between Burma (officially the Union of
Myanmar) and India have improved considerably since
1993.The economic engagement between India and Burma
has expanded into the public and private sectors. The India-
Burma Bilateral Trade Agreement was signed in New Delhi
in January 1994 and was implemented in April 1995 with the
opening of a cross border point between Moreh, India and
Tamu, Myanmar.
India is the largest market for Burmese exports, buying
about USD 220 million worth of goods in 2000 ; India's
exports to Burma stood at USD 75.36 million.
India is Burma’s 4th largest trading partner after Thailand, China and
Singapore, and second largest export market after Thailand,
absorbing 25 percent of its total exports. India is also the seventh
most important source of Burma’s imports.
The governments of India and Burma had set a target of achieving $1
billion in 2006-07 and bilateral trade reached USD 650 million U.S.
dollars by 2006.Indo-Myanmar Chamber of commerce blames to lack
of interest to invest in Myanmar and holds the responsible for the
little growth of the total trade. Out of the total trade between two
countries, India’s export to Myanmar was on $80 million in 2006-07
Bilateral trade stood at US$ 1.15 billion during 2008-09, an increase
of 15.7 per cent over US$ 994.45 million in 2007-08, according to
the latest data by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Bilateral trade has expanded significantly from US$ 12.4 million in
1980-81 to US$ 1207.56 million in 2009-10. India's imports from
Burma are dominated by agricultural items(beans, pulses and forest
based products form 90% of our imports). India’s main exports to
Burma are primary and semi-finished steel and pharmaceuticals.
Following are the export import figures as per the Central Statistical
Organization (CSO),
Trade with India
Exports: 2004-05: US$ 341.40 million
2005-06: US$ 489.10 million
2006-07: US$ 733.59 million
2007-08: US$ 727.85 million
2008-09: US$ 804.96 million
2009-10: US$ 1010.56 million
Trade with India
Imports:
2004-05: US$ 83.37 million
2005-06: US$ 80.07 million
2006-07: US$ 159.54 million
2007-08: US$ 173.46 million
2008-09: US$ 146.18 million
2009-10: US$ 194.03 million
Some Commodities of Indian Exports to
Myanmar
IRON AND STEEL
PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS
NUCLEAR REACTORS, BOILERS, MACHINERY AND
MECHANICAL APPLIANCES
ELECTRICAL MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT AND
PARTS
TELEVISION IMAGE AND SOUND RECORDERS
RUBBER
COTTON etc.
Commodities of Indian Imports from
Myanmar
EDIBLE VEGETABLES AND CERTAIN ROOTS
AND TUBERS.
WOOD AND ARTICLES OF WOOD; WOOD
CHARCOAL.
RAW HIDES AND SKINS AND LEATHER
COFFEE, TEA AND SPICES. Etc
Conclusion
India and Myanmar are considering series of initiatives for expansion
of border trade between the two countries. Indian has given its
approval for the signing of a proposed agreement with Myanmar for
the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with
respect to Income taxes. It is also expected to provide tax stability and
facilitate mutual economic cooperation between the two countries.
So to maintain the good relations between both the countries, a good
policy must be formulate so that it devoid ethical and moral
considerations and also increase the number of items to be trade in
order to increase the total bilateral trade.
