India, Australia eye USD 100 billion trade, commit to speeding up negotiations for expanding free trade agreement
Aiming to increase bilateral trade to USD 100 billion, India and Australia have committed to concluding negotiations for expanding the scope of the existing free trade agreement by the end of this year.
The pledge was made during a meeting of the joint ministerial commission between Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his Australian counterpart, Don Farrell in New Delhi on Saturday.
Farrell was accompanying Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on an official visit.
Last year, India and Australia implemented an economic cooperation and trade agreement (ECTA) and are now negotiating to expand its scope for a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA).
“ECTA was the first stage of our economic engagement. We are now entering into phase-2 of our discussions where we are looking at a much wider ambit of subjects and taking this into a CECA,” Goyal told reporters.
Albanese has said that both sides are looking at firming up the ambitious CECA by 2023, while a joint statement mentioned that the two prime ministers tasked officials to expedite the conclusion of a Migration and Mobility Partnership Arrangement (MMPA) within the next three months.
Goyal acknowledged that he was “very, very dissatisfied” with the current USD 30 billion bilateral trade between the two countries and set a target of USD 45-50 billion over the next five years.
Both ministers expressed “unhappiness” with the trade negotiators and said they “will be much more ambitious and aim for a USD 100-billion trade between the two economies.” Farrell said that the two countries “can achieve” this target.
Goyal said that there are huge opportunities to increase cooperation in areas like education, technology, audio-video services, and sports. While Australia has some “very” fine technologies, best of education institutes and sports, India can offer its talent pool, manufacturing base, and startup ecosystem.
On increasing agri-trade with Australia, the Indian commerce minister said that there are several areas of mutual interest, which are under consideration of agriculture ministries of both sides to resolve sanitary and phyto-sanitary (related to plants and animals) problems.
Farrell said that Australia has all the critical minerals to build batteries for electric vehicles. He also said that in the first month of the ECTA, Australia has shipped goods worth USD 2.5 billion to India.
Farrell added that the Australian wine industry can come to India and provide support to the sector here in terms of sharing knowledge and quality.
Goyal said that India can learn different water sports from Australia as it has a long coastline.
On whether Australia is looking to include gender and sustainability issues in the CECA, Farrell said that the country is looking at these issues as part of the CECA. Goyal said that India is open to negotiations and looks to engage with the rest of the world from a position of strength and learn from the best practices.