Indian And Australia Looking To Sign An Early Harvest Trade Deal By December

Giving a big thrust to the bilateral ties, India and Australia are likely to conclude an early harvest trade deal by coming December as part of a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), reports Times of India.

The early harvest deal would involve cutting of tariffs on items that account for nearly half of the bilateral trade. It would also involve easing of rules for the services sector. The development would also be significant because the talks of CECA had begun over a decade ago.

As and when the deal fructifies, it would be the first among a set of trade deals which India is looking to forge with nations the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom (UK), the European Union (EU) and Canada et cetera.

The December target was agreed upon by Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his Australian counterpart Dan Tehan during a meeting recently. Goyal is said to have set a mid-September deadline for finalising the overall scope of the early harvest scheme.

It should also be noted that along with Japan and Australia, India is also working closely on an initiative to build a resilient supply chain which would help reduce the dependence on China.