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Australian trade minister to visit India on February 10 for FTA talks.
Feb 08, 2022

Australian trade minister Dan Tehan will visit India on February 10 to hold talks with commerce & industry minister Piyush Goyal for an interim trade deal that is at an advanced stage of fruition, sources told FE.
 
In December, both the countries decided to expedite the pace of negotiations for the early-harvest deal, which will be followed up with a broader free trade agreement (FTA).
 
The FTA will cover a broad range of areas, including goods, services, investments, government procurement, logistics, standards and rules of origin. Goyal has been striving to get duty concession for Indian products in critical sectors, including agriculture and textiles, and greater market access in pharmaceuticals.
 
India had a merchandise trade deficit of $4.2 billion with Australia in FY21, as it shipped out goods worth over only $4 billion, while bilateral trade stood at $12.3 billion. Major traded items include mineral fuels, pharmaceutical products, organic chemicals and gems & jewellery.
 
The negotiations with Australia are a part of India’s broader strategy to forge 'fair and balanced' trade agreements with key economies and revamp existing pacts to boost trade.
 
The move gained traction after India pulled out of the China-dominated RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) talks in November 2019.
 
Goyal had last held talks with Tehan on February 4. 'Had a productive discussion with Australian Trade Minister as part of the ongoing deliberations on the India-Australia CECA,' Goyal had tweeted. 'Significant progress on ways to increase trade & investments have been made to further enhance our bilateral relationship.'
 
Balanced FTAs are expected to also enable the country to take advantage of a resurgence of industrial demand in advanced economies and achieve sustained growth rates in exports in the coming years. Already, India has set an ambitious merchandise export target of $1 trillion by FY28.
 
In the current fiscal, it’s on course to realise the lofty export target of $400 billion, against $291 billion in FY21.
 
Although talks for an FTA with Australia have been going on since 2011, the reluctance of Indian industry to offer greater access in farm and dairy products and Australia’s unwillingness to further open up its services sector for free movement of skilled Indian professionals have delayed the outcome of the negotiations.
    
financialexpress

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