Australia to discuss progress of FTA with India during its Assistant Trade Minister’s current visit to India

Australia plans to take stock of the progress on the free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with India and hopes to conclude 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,” said Australia’s Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres. 

Ayres is visiting India to attend the G20 Trade and Investment Ministers’ Meeting in Jaipur, which starts today and will conclude on August 25. He will also be attending the B20 Business Summit in New Delhi later this week. 

Conclusion of an ambitious agreement will enable Australia and India to realise the full potential of our bilateral economic partnership, Ayres said in a statement on Wednesday. 

India and Australia signed the Economic Cooperation Trade Agreement in April 2022, which came into effect from December 29, 2022. The two countries are now working on the CECA.  

India is Australia’s sixth largest trading partner with bilateral trade in goods and services estimated at $ 46.5 billion in 2022. 

India’s commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal had last week told reporters that India will hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the ministers’ meeting to take forward negotiations for free trade pacts with a number of countries including the UK, Canada as well as the European Union.  

“I look forward to meeting with my G20 counterparts to discuss how we can boost international trade and investment to help create more jobs, and address slowing global growth,” he said in his statement, adding that he will also advocate for Australia’s trade interests, including to reinforce G20 support for a strong rules-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core. 

He also said Australia will continue to work closely with India in support of its G20 presidency. 

During his visit, Ayres will also meet with European counterparts to discuss progress on the Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement negotiations.