India against duty cut on farm items in likely Oz FTA
Supply Of Critical Minerals to Be Part of Agreement
- New Delhi: India and Australia are looking to include critical minerals under the expanded free trade agreement (FTA), even as commerce and industry minister Piyush Goy al on Saturday made clear the government's reservations on reducing import duties on farm and dairy products.
- "India is short of critical minerals. Australia has a lar Gere serve of critical minerals that go into (electric vehicle) batteries, which are not fully processed or manufactured currently," Goyal told reporters after meeting Australia's trade minister Don Farrell.
- Critical minerals, along with space technology and op port unities in the digital sector, will be key areas of the planned deal, said Farrell.
- Last year, the two countries signed the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), or an early harvest scheme, and Goyal and Farrell have been tasked with concluding a full trade deal by the end of the year, having set their sights on achieving $100 billion bilateral trade, more than three times the current level.
- The two countries are keen to expand their trade and economic ties, and have emerged as strategic partners in recent months, seeking to secure supply chains.
- While Australia has traditionally argued for lower import duties on agricultural and dairy products, Goyal said that Canberra acknowledged India's concerns given that a large majority of Indian farmers had small land holdings and their cattle stock was sufficient to meet their own requirements.
- He said there are several areas of mutual interest, which are being discussed so that non-tariff hurdles to shipping those products could be removed. There is an opening up of some elements of agriculture in the ECTA and "with an open mind, we will be looking at forward movement wherever there are areas of complementarity and mutual benefit, "Goyal said.