New Delhi: Australia’s Parliament has approved the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India. The Agreement is likely to come into force from January 2023. The agreement was signed on April 2.
This will give duty-free access to over 6,000 products from India, including textiles, leather, furniture, jewellery and machinery, to the Australian market. Under the agreement, Australia is offering duty-free access to India for about 96.4 per cent of exports.
Many of these products are such that currently there is a duty of four to five percent in Australia. In the financial year 2021-22, India exported goods worth $ 8.3 billion to Australia and imported $ 16.75 billion.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that with this agreement, the trade between the two countries is expected to increase by USD 45-50 billion in the next 5-6 years from usd 31 billion at present.
This is the third such agreement after the government signed trade agreements with Mauritius and the UAE. Goyal told reporters that Australia will open all its territories for products under this without any restrictions and quotas. Australia is doing this for the first time with a country. He said Australian investments will create employment opportunities in India.