Ahead of his visit to India next week, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott today received a white paper that sought urgent engagement with the new Indian government to reverse the dwindling bilateral trade.

Citing that there was an urgent need to reverse the declining trade with India which dropped by over 26 per cent between 2009 and 2013, the white paper titled ‘The Australia— India Trade Relationship — Past, Present and Future possibilities’, sketched a blueprint for the federal government to take the bilateral relations to a higher level.

The white paper, a joint initiative of Australia India Business Council (AIBC) and Australia India Institute (AII), was presented to Prime Minister Abbott by AIBC Chair Dipen Rughani and Vice Chair Sheba Nandkeolyar this morning.

The paper has sought a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) on “top priority” and called for fast engagement with the new Narendra Modi-led government.

It has suggested specific directions in which the government should proceed, breaking it industry-wise. It also provides information on Modi as a leader, his government’s economic policies and its major goals for Australia to understand where and how to invest.

The paper pinpointed that despite improvements in political and strategic fronts, trade relations were declining and if steps were not taken to correct both nations would stand to lose.

“Since 2009, the value of Australia—India trade has fallen from 20 billion Australian dollars to 15 billion Australian dollars in 2013,” the white paper said, adding that “elevating relations to a strategic partnership has clearly not achieved one of the desired results.”

“Australia should act quickly to take advantage of opportunities in India. Australia and India can both reverse the current declining trend in bilateral trade by engaging not only between governments but also at the business to business and business to consumer levels,” it noted.

Prime Minister Abbott will undertake his first visit to India on September 4 to further strengthen the strategic partnership and promote trade and investment between the two countries, which are also likely to ink the much—awaited uranium deal.

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