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(From left) Mr Mark Vaile, Minister for Trade, Australia, Mr Arun Jaitley, Minister for Law, Commerce and Industry, Mr Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI, and Mr Deepak Chatterjee, Commerce Secretary, at the 14th meeting of India-Australia JBC in the Capital on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI, Feb. 18

MR Arun Jaitley, Minister of Commerce & Industry, has emphasised the need for boosting trade and investment between India and Australia from the current low level.

At the Eight India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC), here on Tuesday, he said that there was a need to diversify the basket of export items and increase investment in important sectors information technology, bio-technology, energy and minerals.

Indo-Australian trade during April-October 2002-03 has increased by 4.24 per cent at $1,003.96 million. India's exports to Australia during the same period grew by 19.37 per cent. The cumulative investment from Australia to India has reached $1.87 billion till October 2002.

He also pointed to the immense investment potential in India in the sectors of telecom, road and highways, ports and airports, tourism and manufacturing.

Earlier, speaking at the 14th meeting of India-Australia Joint Business Council (JBC), organised by the FICCI, the Minister observed that though the pattern of trade between the two nations had remained more or less the same in the last decade, the trend is likely to change with India's planned focus in the Asia-Pacific Region.

In this regard, he highlighted certain issues that continue to hamper bilateral trade between the two nations. The Minister said that that issues relating to quarantine and inspections have resulted in slowing down the export of Indian agricultural and marine products to Australia.

He observed that this is the main concern and should be looked into favourably.

In his address, Mr Mark Vaile, Minister of Trade, Australia, urged the Indian Government to consider lowering tariffs more quickly on wool, as it is an important input for India's textile export industry.

It may be noted that Australia exports a great deal of wool ($189 million) to India, which India processes for domestic consumption and re-exports.

In this regard, he informed that Australian Wool Innovation has commissioned a report from Woolmark International, which identifies increased per capita income as one of the major drivers for the consumption of wool in India. He announced that the report would be released next month.

Highlighting other possible areas for cooperation, the Australian Minister said that his country could also help India in developing an adequate energy supply for its expanding industrial sector.

In this regard, he drew attention to the expertise of the Australian companies servicing the LNG industry.

According to him, these companies are very well placed to assist Indian industry develop energy resources including offshore gas fields in Eastern India.

He also mentioned that in traditional energy needs, Australian coal has helped Indian steel mills for many years.

He was of the opinion that if India lowered its tariffs, Australia would be in a stronger position to help meet the Indian industry's rapidly growing demand for coal.

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