Next round of India-Australia comprehensive FTA talks begin, substantial progress likely

New Delhi: Chief negotiators of India and Australia will begin the next round of talks for the comprehensive free trade agreement from Monday in Sydney, where both sides are likely to close negotiations on several chapters of the pact, an official said.

Both countries have already implemented an interim pact and are in discussions to expand its scope under the CECA (Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement).

The interim pact - Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) - came into force in December 2022.

The tenth round of negotiations is scheduled from August 19-22 in Sydney.

"Out of the total 19 areas of the agreement, we have completed our discussions on four chapters, and we are in very advanced stages in a few others. We hope that in this round, we should be able to close altogether, maybe more than 10 chapters," the commerce ministry official said.

In this round, the official said that both countries are likely to get into market access discussions in goods and services.

The ECTA provides duty-free access to Indian exporters of over 6,000 broad sectors, including textiles, leather, furniture, jewellery and machinery in the Australian market. Under the pact, Australia has offered zero-duty access to India for about 96.4 per cent of exports.

On the other hand, the CECA envisages deeper and comprehensive engagement on the five issues - goods, services, digital trade, government procurement and rules of origin - that were agreed under ECTA.

Collaboration in space, mining and sports are among 15 new areas mutually identified by India and Australia for negotiations under the comprehensive free trade agreement. For the first time, these new segments would become part of a trade pact being negotiated by India.

Australia is an important trading partner of India in the Oceania region, with merchandise trade between India and Australia reaching around $24 billion in 2023-24.

India's exports to Australia last fiscal stood at $7.94 billion, while imports were $16.15 billion. The trade between the two countries has been hovering at around $25 billion mark since 2021-22.