Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal discussed with his Australian counterpart Don Farell on Tuesday the early implementation of the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), awaiting ratification by Australian Parliament, and the way forward for a comprehensive free trade agreement.

At the virtual meeting, “The Australian Minister informed that the IndAus ECTA as well as the amendments to the domestic regulation of Australia for resolving the issues related to Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) had been introduced in the Australia Parliament and is likely to be ratified shortly after the Joint Standing Committee on Treaty submits its report to the House. He further mentioned that the processes related to the ratification of the agreement will be completed in the following weeks,” according to a statement issued by the Commerce & Industry Ministry on Tuesday.

Experts from both the sides will have their first round of discussions on the comprehensive ECTA, which will lay a roadmap for the Joint Ministerial Commission meeting, the Ministers decided. They agreed to hold the annual Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) meeting sometime early next year.

Market access

“Delegations noted that both nations share a special partnership based on mutual values of pluralistic parliamentary democracies, expanding economic strategic engagement and long-standing people-to-people ties,” the release stated. 

The India-Australia ECTA, under which Australia has agreed to provide zero-duty market access for 96.4 per cent value of Indian exports on the first day of implementation of the agreement, was approved in April 2022 by the previous government in Australia led by the then Prime Minister Scott Morrison. 

Australia, too, is set to gain as India has agreed to provide zero-duty market access to 85 per cent of Australian goods.

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