India and Australia agreed on Thursday to conclude a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by end 2022, with an interim agreement that will be finalised by this Christmas, said Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan after meeting Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
“The economic partnership will cover trade in services and goods, investments and we will begin discussing government procurement, energy and resources, logistics and transport, standards, rules of origin,” Mr. Tehan said at a joint briefing. “We have agreed to exchange offers by the end of October.
“This is an extraordinarily ambitious and a big day for the economic partnership between India and Australia,” he asserted, adding that the bilateral trade could double from the current level of A$26 billion once a full-fledged FTA is in place.
“This growth will be across all areas because of the complementarities in the two countries’ industries. Our merino wool could be used by Indian textiles makers to produce the best product,” he said.
Jammu and Kashmir’s Pashmina could similarly be an attractive proposition for Australians, said Mr. Goyal. “We have set out some ambitious targets and timelines to meet and negotiating teams will begin work immediately to reach an important outcome towards expanding the Australia-India trading relationship,” he said.
