India, Australia push forward on CECA talks

Trade ministers of India and Australia held parleys on Wednesday to assess the progress on negotiations towards a full-fledged free trade deal, about 20 months since an early harvest bilateral pact called the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) came into effect.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who co-chaired a meeting of the India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission with Australia’s Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell, said the talks focused on strengthening trade ties to achieve the countries’ shared goal of $100 billion in bilateral trade by 2030.

Since the early harvest deal, nearly $30 billion worth of Australian exports have entered India either with zero tariffs or lower tariffs than “any of our competitors”, with agricultural exports to India rising 60% to $1.6 billion, Mr. Farrell said. For Australian consumers, the deal has translated into “savings at the checkouts worth around $225 million, thanks to the lower tariffs on products coming in from India”, he added.

“We also reviewed ECTA implementation, discussed progress on the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), WTO issues, and explored opportunities within the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework,” Mr. Goyal said.

His Australian counterpart stressed they have much to offer “friends in India, particularly in agriculture,” and indicated an interest in securing lower or no import tariffs from India for its produce like chickpeas, pistachios, apples, as well as wine. However, acknowledging India’s concerns on some sectors like farm and dairy products, he added that “where issues are difficult, we understand that, and we’re not going to make life any more difficult for the Indian Government.”

“You saw that our first agreement didn’t have any negative press or any negative public outcry. I’m sure the second agreement will correspondingly be a good mix of the good things that people want out of the agreement,” Mr. Goyal said.