India-Australia interim FTA to be signed soon

India will benefit from labor-intensive industries such as leather, gems, and jewellery. Both countries’ two-way trade was $24.3 billion in 2020, and India was Australia’s seventh largest trading partner.

NEW DELHI: The long-awaited interim free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Australia will be signed this weekend. Earlier this month, Indian PM Modi and Australian PM Morrison held a virtual summit, the second such summit in two years.

During the summit, the PM said, “remarkable progress has been made in a very short time. Australian Trade minister Dan Tehan and Indian trade minister Piyush Goyal have held a number of talks, including many visits by the Australian minister to Delhi. Minister Tehan was in Delhi in February, during which it was decided that the interim FTA would be signed within 30 days and the comprehensive economic cooperation agreement within 12 months.

The Indian-born population became Australia’s second-largest overseas-born migrant group, behind the UK-born at 721,050-strong in 2020.