India And Australia Set To Finalise Free-Trade Agreement Soon

India and Australia are set to finalise a free-trade agreement (FTA) prior to the general elections in Canberra in May.

Dan Tehan, the Australian trade minister, has said that he has been taking daily meetings with his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal and affirmed that the two sides are very close to reaching a deal.

“Both sides are working feverishly to make sure we can get an agreement that’s in both our national interests,” Tehan was quoted in a report by Bloomberg.

The negotiations for an FTA between India and Australia first began in 2011 but the talks were suspended in 2015. However, the developing ties between PM Narendra Modi and PM Scott Morrison led to the dialogues over the same resuming from 2020 onwards.

The two-way trade between India and Australia stood at AU $24.3 billion in 2020.

The vocal push for an FTA with India as the start of the national election campaign is nearing Down Under. The incumbent Morrison government has been reportedly talking up the narrative of a strong economic management.

Meanwhile, Tehan is in the United States of America (USA) for the inaugural Strategic Economic Dialogue between the two nations.