India, Australia to ink comprehensive free trade pact

• Shubham
• 30 September, 2021

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By: Shubham Ghosh

INDIA and Australia are set to sign a comprehensive free trade agreement by the end of next year and an early harvest trade deal by Christmas this year.

Dan Tehan, Australia’s minister of trade, tourism and investment, said on Thursday (30), “We (Indian and Australia) have agreed to make sure that we will conclude the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and India by the end of 2022 and an early harvest trade deal by Christmas this year.”

“Before the final free trade agreement, India and Australia will come with an Interim agreement by December 2021. It will be in compliance with WTO rules. We have started discussing issues of logistics, country of origin etc. We will exchange offer on the trade deal by end of October,” he added.

Tehan made the announcement at a joint media briefing with India’s commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal. The Australian minister is currently in New Delhi for talks over the deal.

“We have built wonderful relations between India and Australia. Our PMs recently met in the US. We’ve set out ambitious timelines and targets. We’ll start working immediately to expand the India-Australia trade relationship,” Goyal said.

Talking about the interim agreement, the Indian minister said: “Interim agreement will cover low hanging fruits, while contours of full FTA may take time in 2022. The trade deal will include investments, goods, services. India, Australia restarted talks on trade deal after RCEP but discussions were hit due to COVID-19.”