NEW DELHI: Concluding the comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) with India by the year-end remains Australia’s number one trade priority, the country’s trade and investment minister Andrew Robb said.
Robb has visited India four times since September as Australia has pitched strongly for the CECA. He met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, commerce minister Nirmal Sitharaman and other senior officials.
“There is nothing to suggest that we won’t get it finished by the end of the year. That was a deadline set by Prime Minister Modi and Prime Abbot and it is very tight but it is Australia’s number one trade priority to get this economic agreement concluded by the end of the year,” Robb told a news conference on the sidelines of the India-Australia CEO’s forum.
“I will come, my negotiating team will come as often we have to make that happen. Everything else can be secondary to achieve that objective. There is no time to be lost in our view. There is a big agenda here,” he said.
He said Australia was aiming to give the pact a services focus as it eyes the Indian market to bring in its expertise in an array of services — from engineering to architecture, design and water management.
“We have settled very much on the importance of services. It’s a critical focus. This will have a strong goods focus but the principal focus would be on services and investment.”
PM Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot have signalled their strong commitment to seal the CECA by the end of this year. The eighth round of negotiations is set to take place in New Delhi in July.
India is Australia’s 12th largest trading partner and two-way trade is approximately $A15 billion. Indian investment into Australia has reached almost $A11 billion, with $A9.8 billion of Australian investment in India.
The CEO’s forum reaffirmed the importance of high quality, mutually beneficial Australia-India CECA in driving this and called on both governments to be bold and ambitious in their approach to the trade pact.
