India and Australia conduct another round of FTA talks to iron out disagreements

Sydney Opera House lit up. Representative Image (Image: Reuters)

India and Australia have completed another round of negotiations on the proposed trade pact between the countries. Held on February 10 in New Delhi, the latest round of negotiations have seen focus on strategies to power through existing disagreements on tariff reduction and market access, sources said.

Australian trade minister Dan Tehan is currently visiting India to further discussions on the proposed trade pact currently being negotiated between the two countries. Officials said talks are progressing smoothly, given the expedited timeframe and both parties remain confident of finalizing the deal by later this year.

New Delhi has been discussing the India-Australia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) for 11 years now, but talks have progressed fast since August, 2020.

India had announced in late August 2021 its intention to begin renegotiations on the CECA, and sign an early harvest deal by December 2021. An early harvest trade deal is one in which both parties sign off on a set of easily achievable deliverables. Such pacts target specific goals such as tariff reduction and market access on select items while leaving more contentious items off the agenda.

This was followed by an announcement in September 2021 saying both sides will finalise the early harvest pact by Christmas of 2021, to be followed by a comprehensive free trade agreement in 2022. But despite a lot of enthusiasm from both sides, the Christmas deadline was missed. While the government had been confident of working out the details soon, officials say existing issues have derailed the talks. The latest talks on the deal were announced in September 2021.

Official sources had indicated to Moneycontrol earlier that any new announcements on the CECA was unlikely during the visit, as both sides are yet to flesh out the final details of the deal.

Other issues

Instead, the main centerpiece of Tehan's visit is the signing of a memorandum of understanding between India and Australia, to promote further travel and tourism between the two countries.

Later this week, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar will make his first visit to Australia for the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Melbourne. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue is a strategic alliance and forum between India, Australia, Japan, and the United States. The countries have widely hinted that the Quad would work as a bulwark against growing Chinese ambitions in the region.

Sources say the official agenda includes vaccine distribution in the Asia-Pacific region, cyber and critical technology, countering disinformation, counterterrorism, maritime security, humanitarian and disaster response, and climate change.