The ascendency of India as an economic world power

Malaysia may be a much smaller country compared to India but it has a robust economy in Asia. Both the countries are now eager to increase regional cooperation (bilateral trade) and you know that increasing trade means increase in cutting duties on different products. Malaysia wants that India cuts back substantially on import duties of palm oil. Malaysia is the largest producer of palm oil in the world and India imports a lot of palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia.

Zee News reported:

India imports about three million tons of palm oil and its variants annually, mainly from Malaysia and Indonesia, according to commodity bourse MCX.

Malaysia accounts for roughly half of the world's total palm oil output of around 28 million tons.

"Given the growing consumer market and middle class, India gives (Malaysia a) good market for palm oil," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said at a CII seminar here.

But Aziz would have none of this and said: "Now that you have said this publicly," India should cut duties on palm oil.

The amount of bilateral trade between these two countries is $6.6 billion at this moment. The two countries have set a target to increase it to $16 billion within the next 5 years. Well, if the leaders of two countries cannot find common grounds about cutting back on taxes soon then this will be an impossible target to achieve.