India, Australia final FTA by 2022 |
As a result of the bilateral meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison in Washington, India and Australia have announced the resumption of negotiations on a free trade agreement. An interim agreement is likely to be announced by December this year, and negotiations on a full FTA concluded by the end of 2022. Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and Dan Tehan, Australia`s Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, announced the formal resumption of negotiations on the India-Australia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), at a press conference. Negotiations for a CECA were has stalled in 2015 after nine rounds. An official statement said the two ministers met during the 17th India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission meeting, discussed several key issues, including the expeditious negotiation of a bilateral CECA, resolution of tax-related issues faced by Indian software firms in Australia and ensuring increased two-way trade. Looking to build on the progress made by both countries on earlier bilateral negotiations, both Ministers agreed on the need for a balanced trade agreement that encourages expanded trade and investment flows to the benefit of both of our economies. This reflects a shared commitment to the rules-based international trading system. Reaffirming their commitment to working together, both ministers agreed to strengthen the rules-based, transparent, non-discriminatory, open, and inclusive multilateral trading system embodied by the World Trade Organization. They also agreed to work towards an ambitious and balanced outcome at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) in Geneva, Switzerland. India-Australia bilateral trade exceeded AUD$24 billion last year.Major Indian exports to Australia are petroleum products, medicines, polished diamonds, gold jewellery, apparels, etc, while key Australian exports to India include coal, LNG, alumina and non-monetary gold.
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