Australian Parliament to Shortly Ratify Trade Pact With India

The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement signed off in April is in contention for ratification by the Australian parliament before its implementation. Australian Trade and Tourism minister Don Farrell recently reported that the free trade agreement with India has been introduced into the Australian parliament and is in the process of being ratified shortly.

The issue was discussed with commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal during a virtual meeting. The minister further acknowledged that the agreement was in both countries best interests.

After the ratification, both sides would implement the pact from a mutually agreed date; according to media reports, processes related to the agreement's ratification would be completed in the following weeks. Minute details of the pact would be hammered out later on in a Joint Ministerial commission meeting; as of now, experts from both sides can lay a road map for the Joint Ministerial Meeting.

The agreement, once initialized, would open the doors for duty-free access to the Australian market for more than 6,000 broad sectors from India, including Textiles, leather, furniture, jewelry, and machinery. According to statements made by MR Piyush Goyal, the agreement would help promote bilateral trade from USD 27.5 billion to USD 54-50 billion in the next 5 years.

Under the ambit of the pact falls a zero duty access to India for about 96.4% of exports from day one. This would cover many products that currently attract 4-5 % customs duty in Australia. As a result, labor-intensive sectors would gain immensely from this agreement, and sectors like textiles, apparel, agriculture, and fish products, leather footwear furniture, sports goods and jewelry, machinery, and railway wagon productions would be benefitted profoundly.

Australia is now the 17 th largest trading partner with India, while India is Australia's 9th most significant partner. India's goods exports stood at USD 8.3 billion, and imports aggregated to USD 16.75 billion in 2021-22.

India has been pushing for an early amendment of the double taxation avoidance agreement regulations to stop the taxation on the offshore income of Indian firms providing technical support to Australia.

Indian imports amounted to about US$15.1 billion in 2021, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database for international trade. Some of the most prominent articles imported remain to be.

•   Mineral Fuels, Oils, and distillation products - $11.41B
•   Pearls, precious stones, metals, and coins -$1.14B
•   Ores slag and ash -$799.69M
•   Inorganic chemicals, precious metal compound, isotope - $431.46M
•   Edible Vegetables and Certain roots and tubers - $120.66M
•   Aluminum - $118.26M
•   Tanning, dyeing extracts, tannins, derivatives, pigments - $112.39M
•   Wood and articles of wood and Charcoal - $111.49M
•   Edible Fruits, Nuts, peel of citrus fruit, melons - $104.31M
•   Optical, photo, technical, and medical apparatus- $97.03m
•   Iron and Steel - $95.84M
•   Wool, Animal Hair, Horsehair yarn, and fabric - $92.18M
•   Cotton - $66.29M
•   Machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers - $38.75M
•   Electronic equipment - $36.52M

The FTA agreement would help boost the global trade imparted towards Australia and the rest of the world. Recently India has been in contention to sign off on a free trade agreement deal with the United Kingdom, with trade agreement talks with GCC to commence later in the following months. With all these trade agreements under process, India seeks to boost its presence in the global market and increase the market share for indigenously produced products.

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