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Negotiations between India and Australia to have a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) have once got stuck over tariff reduction on agricultural items. However, despite differences over some of the crucial areas such as agriculture and services, both sides have decided to conclude the talks by December this year.
This was decided during a bilateral meeting between Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman and Australia's Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb that took place on the sidelines of the CII Partnership Summit here. "Both ministers had a successful meeting. They agreed to close the talks by the end of this year. However, sensitivities do remain on both sides as far as agriculture is concerned. It has now emerged as the trickiest of all issues," a senior official told Business Standard.
Apparently, Australia has been insistent on getting duty-free access to the Indian market for its booming diary products. However, for India, it is a sensitive sector which employs a large number of people. Robb had earlier taken up the matter even with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with whom he met on the sidelines of the recently concluded 'Vibrant Gujarat' summit. India, on the other hand, has been pushing for a liberal visa regime for greater movement of its professionals into that market.
On Monday, Robb was in New Delhi to kick-start the Australia India Business Week. He had then met Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley and urged him to expedite the talks.
India-Australia CECA could well be the first such broad-based free trade deal that the new government would enter into after coming to power last year in May. Ever since the talks started in 2011, both sides have had six round of negotiations.
According to the joint feasibility study conducted in 2008, India and Australia would stand to gain significantly from the CECA. Some of the main agricultural items that India exports to Australia are coffee, cashew nuts, tea, rice and tobacco, while it imports from that region wool, chickpeas, almonds and paper scrap among others.
