FTA Progress concern Australia; India talks on
Australia will discuss FTA improvement with India during its Assistant Trade Minister’s recent visit to India.
Australia intends to take stock of the progress on the free trade agreement (FTA) talks with India and expects to finish it by the year-end.
“I will also use this visit to discuss progress on our Free Trade Agreement with India, the Australia-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), which we are looking to conclude this year,” stated Australia’s Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres.
Ayres is visiting India to be at the G20 Trade and Investment Ministers’ Meeting in Jaipur, which begins today and will end on August 25. He will attend the B20 Business Summit in New Delhi later this week.
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Conclusion of an ambitious deal will allow Australia and India to acknowledge the full potential of our bilateral economic cooperation, Ayres said in a statement on Wednesday.
India and Australia sealed the Economic Cooperation Trade Agreement in April 2022, functioning on December 29, 2022. The two nations are now working on the CECA.
India is Australia’s sixth most significant trading partner, with bilateral trade in products and services estimated at $ 46.5 billion in 2022.
India’s commerce secretary, Sunil Barthwal, told journalists last week that India will have bilateral negotiations on the sidelines of the ministers’ meeting to take forward talks for free trade agreements with several nations, including the UK, Canada and the European Union.
