- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA and Australia are likely to complete negotiations for an interim free trade agreement (FTA) soon, a move which aims at boosting economic ties between the two countries, India’s commerce ministry said on Thursday (30).
It said that the final agreement, which is officially dubbed as Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
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The agreement covers areas such as goods, services, investment, rules of origin, customs facilitation, legal and institutional issues.
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“India-Australia CECA negotiations are at an advanced stage. Both countries are expected to complete negotiations for the interim agreement soon,” it said.
The ministry also said that a similar agreement with the United Arab Emirates is likely to be signed in March 2022.
“This new strategic economic agreement is expected to increase bilateral trade in goods to USD 100 billion (£74 billion) within five years of the signed agreement and increase trade in services to USD 15 billion (£11.1 billion),” it added.
On the export target of USD 400 billion (£297 billion) for this fiscal year, it said India’s merchandise exports have reached 65.89 per cent of the target till November.
“For monthly monitoring of achievement of targets, an Export Monitoring Desk under Statistics Division of DGFT has been set up,” it added.
It also said the India Pavilion at the Dubai Expo has attracted six lakh (0.6 million) visitors in 83 days since its opening.
The ministry also informed in its year-end review that at the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), total 31.8 lakh (3.18 million) vendors have been onboarded.
“GeM has created a Unified Procurement System for the country in line with the vision of the government, by bringing the functionalities of the Defence Public Procurement Portal, the Central Public Procurement Portal and its sub-portals onto GeM to provide a single user experience,” it said.
