India-australia Free Trade Agreement

India, Oz for early conclusion of trade pact talks; eye $100 bn in 5 years

India and Australia on Saturday expressed their commitment for concluding the negotiations for expanding the scope of existing free trade agreement by the end of this year with an aim to push the bilateral trade to USD 100 billion. The issue came up for discussions during the meeting of joint ministerial commission between commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and his Australian counterpart Don Farrell. Farrell is accompanying Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who is here on an official visit. On December 29, 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 much wider ambit of subjects and taking this into a CECA," Goyal told reporters here. After the first India-Australia summit talks here on

Australian PM to visit India next month to boost bilateral engagement

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is set to make his maiden trip to India early next month with an aim to boost overall bilateral engagement in a range of areas, including trade, investment and critical minerals. People familiar with the plan for his visit said on Monday that Albanese is expected to begin the visit around March 8 and he and Prime Minister Narerndra Modi are likely to travel to Ahmedabad to witness the fourth cricket Test match between India and Australia. The fourth Test is scheduled to be held at Ahmedabad from March 9-13. It will be Albanese's first visit to India after he became prime minister in May last year. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Australia last week ostensibly to prepare for the visit to India by the Australian prime minister. There is no official announcement of the visit yet. However, Albanese mentioned about his visit to India in a tweet after meeting Jaishankar on Saturday. "It was wonderful to meet with @DrSJaishankar

India-Australia FTA to provide relief to Indian textile exporters: CITI

The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement, which came into force from Thursday, is set to provide a "big relief" to Indian textile exporters, the Confederation of Indian Textiles Industry said. Under the pact, Australia is offering zero-duty access to India for about 96.4 per cent of exports (by value) from day one. India's goods exports to Australia stood at USD 8.3 billion and imports from the country aggregated to USD 16.75 billion in 2021-22. Confederation of Indian Textiles Industry (CITI) Chairman T Rajkumar said he is hopeful that the "India-Australia ECTA (Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement) will help boost textile and apparel exports as the FTA is slated to provide a big relief to Indian textile exporters who had to pay about 10 per cent customs duty in countries like Australia, Canada, and the UK". Sharing that India's ready-made garment exports to Australia have seen a growth of an average of 11.84 per cent over the last five years, Rajkumar opin

India-Australia trade agreement to greatly benefit MSMEs: Piyush Goyal

The interim pact between India and Australia, also known as Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), has the potential to double bilateral trade to $50 billion in half a decade

Free trade with Australia kicks off; Tamil Nadu sees export gains

India gets preferential access to all products it exports to Australia

India-Australia FTA to help bilateral trade cross $70 bn in next 5 years

The free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Australia, which comes into effect from Thursday, will help boost bilateral trade in goods and services to cross USD 70 billion in the next five years, according to economic think tank GTRI. The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) has come into force from December 29. Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said trade of value USD 23 billion would become duty-free from day one. This is 93 per cent of merchandise trade of USD 25 billion in 2021-22 between India and Australia. This creates opportunities for more trade in tough times. GTRI estimates suggest that the bilateral trade will cross USD 70 billion in the next five years due to buoyant trade relations and Australia's gradual weaning away from China, GTRI Co-founder Ajay Srivastava said in a statement. India's goods exports to Australia stood at USD 8.3 billion and imports from the country aggregated to USD 16.75 billion in 2021-22. He said while ..

India-Australia interim trade deal kicks in today after eight-month wait

The implementation of the interim trade pact, also known as Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) has the potential to double the bilateral trade between the two countries to $50 billion

Trade agreements with Australia, UAE to help boost exports, says EPCs

Various export promotion councils (EPCs) on Wednesday lauded the trade agreements signed by India with the UAE and Australia, saying the pacts will help the country in boosting exports by granting preferential access to those markets for Indian products. Engineering Exports Promotion Council (EEPC) said that the country has benefited from preferential market access provided by the UAE on over 97 per cent of its tariff lines which account for 99 per cent of Indian exports to the region in value terms. Eastern regional chairman of EEPC, B D Agarwal, said at an interactive session here that this trend has emerged after signing of the IndiaUAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which became effective from May one, 2022. The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), which will come into force from December 29, is expected to create 10 lakh jobs, and raise Indian merchandise exports to Australia by USD 10 billion, he said. According to him, the ECT

Australia FTA: Wine industry gears up for foreign market's entry in India

The duty cut regime on Australian wine under the recent trade agreement strikes a balance between protecting the domestic industry and opening the path for greater investments and tie-ups

India-Australia free trade agreement will boost Indian apparel exports

Customs duty advantage under the India-Australia free trade agreement will help Indian apparel exporters get greater market access in that country as compared to their competitors, AEPC said on Tuesday. The agreement is coming into force from December 29. Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Vice Chairman Sudhir Sekhri said Australia is the largest importer of garments in the southern hemisphere. While China's share in import of apparel into Australia is more than 70 per cent, India's share is less than 5 per cent. "With the India-Australia ECTA (Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement ) getting operationalised, India will have a slight duty advantage over Vietnam and Indonesia for imports in the Australian market," he said. India's ready-made garment exports to Australia have seen a growth of an average of 11.84 per cent over the last 5 years, which is "purely on account of China Plus One strategy adopted by most countries," he added. Going by this growth trend and with the

Australia looks to double trade with India as Chinese restrictions bite

With a middle-to-high income population of about 85 million people - roughly three times Australia's total population - it's seen as a prime target for sectors from education, to wine and tourism

2022 in Review: Events that defined India's relations with the world

India-Australia trade pact major milestone for bolstering ties: Envoy

The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement, signed in April this year, is the most strategic pact between the two countries that will bolster bilateral ties, Consul General of Australia in Kolkata Rowan Ainsworth said. Speaking at an interactive session organised by the Engineering Exports Promotion Council (EEPC) and Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce (IACC) here on Wednesday, Ainsworth said the agreement will provide preferential market access for Indian goods in Australia. The pact is a major milestone in building stronger economic ties with India, the envoy said. She said that according to the pact, India needs to eliminate 96 tariff lines for goods imported from Australia, while Australia needs to eliminate 85 per cent tariff lines on imports from India. Ainsworth also said tariffs will be eliminated in the mineral sector, making way for competitive rates on Australian imports. Australia trades in about 6,500 tariff lines, while India has over 11,500 tariff

FTA with Australia to create level-playing field for home textile exporters

Even as there is a slowdown in demand for Indian garments in the US and Europe, free trade agreement (FTA) with Australia is likely to provide a level-playing field for home textile exporters in 2022-23, according to a report. The build-up of inventories on account of the cut on discretionary expenditure and reallocation of expenses to services have reduced imports into the key US market, according to a India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) report. Consequently, the home textile segment continued to experience a demand slowdown, whereas other segments of cotton, apparel and man-made spinning continue to benefit from the China+1 sourcing and continuing US ban on the use of cotton from Xinjiang, China. However, given the discretionary nature of textile products, Ind-Ra expects the slowing demand in Europe, the US and other parts of the world to have an impact on textile exports. In addition, the report stated that small yarn players facing cotton availability issues are likely to get .

India-Australia free trade agreement to come into force from Dec 29

Trade between the two countries is expected to cross $45-50 bn in five years

Best of BS Opinion: Meritocracy & reservations, trading on growth, and more

Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for today:

Growth through trade

Progress on the Australian trade pact signals a momentum shift

DTAA amendment by Australia likely to come into force from April 1

IT expected to be 'biggest gainer' with savings up to $1 bn

Govt asks exporters to utilise and reap benefits of India-Australia FTA

There is a need to go beyond the usual buyer-seller meets and get more aggressive towards their ways to sell products in the Australian market, people aware of the matter told Business Standard

ECTA: The dawn of a new era in Indo-Aus relations

Indian exports and manufacturing will be equally benefited with the duty-free import of raw materials from Australia for their competitiveness