As early as 1950, Indonesia`s first president, Sukarno, recognized the importance of Indonesia-India relations and called for a greater trade relationship. In November 2005, Indonesia and India signed a bilateral strategic partnership agreement in which the two countries agreed to increase bilateral trade to $10 billion by 2010. This target was even exceeded this year, with a total trade of about $12 billion, which means tripling the $4 billion amount of 2005. Bilateral trade between India and Indonesia increased by $20 billion in 2012 and is expected to reach $25 billion in 2015. In addition, Indonesia and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2005 establishing a Joint Study Group (JSG) to examine the positive aspects that would result from the signing of a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CCIA). CECAF is supposed to be an agreement covering economic cooperation and trade in goods and services and investment, which would lead to a higher level of mutually beneficial economic cooperation between the two countries. The JSG projected that CECAF would bring total exports between India and Indonesia to $17.5 billion in 2020, with exports from India reaching $7.8 billion and exports from Indonesia to $9.7 billion. Before the signing of the agreement, Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, delegation to the Indian Prime Minister to protest against the free trade agreement.

The state of Kerala is an important exporter in the domestic export of plantation products. It fears that cheap imports of rubber, coffee and fish will reduce domestic production and have a negative impact on farmers and, ultimately, their economy. [13] Kerala has already experienced a flood of its market of cheap imports under the 2006 South Asia Free Trade Agreement. Since then, Sri Lanka`s cheap coconuts and Malaysian palm oil have hampered Kerala coconut cultivation. [13] The signing of the ASEAN-India Merchandise Trade Agreement paves the way for the creation of one of the world`s largest free trade agreements, a market of nearly 1.8 billion people and a combined GDP of $2.8 trillion. The ASEAN-India FREE TRADE AGREEMENT provides for tariff liberalization of more than 90% of products traded between the two dynamic regions, including so-called „special“ products such as palm oil (raw and refined), coffee, black tea and pepper. Tariffs on more than 4,000 product lines will be eliminated at the earliest in 2016. Due to many common opinions on important international issues, a mutually beneficial bilateral trade relationship has developed between India and the Lao Democratic People`s Republic. . .

.