Canberra, 3 April 2022 (TDI): The Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement was formally signed on Saturday in a virtual conference. The conference was headed by the Australian Trade Minister, Dan Tehan, and India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal.
The Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison observed the event with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi. Scott Morrison called the trade deal one of the biggest economic corridors given India’s population, this deal had been in the works for around a decade.
A historic day for India-Australia ties. 🇮🇳🇦🇺
We are grateful to our leaders, PM @NarendraModi ji and PM @ScottMorrisonMP for their constant guidance & motivation.
The #IndAusECTA will open a plethora of opportunities in goods & services for both the nations. pic.twitter.com/KBo7vK0bbq
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) April 2, 2022
This deal will remove tariffs on over 85% of Australian goods exported to India. Tariffs will be removed from commodities such as coal, wool, copper, lamb, and nonferrous metals. Once the deal goes into effect 96% of Indian goods will enter Australia duty-free.
“One of the biggest economic doors there is to open in the world today. These are never all or nothing deals as far as we’re concerned, we see all of these as the next step and the next step and the next step,” said Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister of Australia
This deal comes as Australia seeks to diversify its export partners and move away from its over-dependence on its biggest trading partner, China as the countries had a falling out early last month which led to the boycott of Australian goods in China.
Both governments are interested in brokering a full free trade agreement, Piyush Goyal, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry said that once this deal goes through, they’ll start working on the next stage of this economic partnership, and with the elections in Australia just around the corner, the Australian Trade Minister, Dan Tehan said that he was confident that negotiations would continue even if Morrison was replaced.
