Ind- Aus ECTA:
India signed a historic trade agreement with Australia, the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (Ind- Aus ECTA).
- In February 2022, India and Australia announced that they were going to sign such an agreement.
- The negotiations for India-Australia ECTA were formally re-launched in September 2021 and concluded on a fast-track basis by the end of March 2022.
- Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement is the first Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that India has signed with a major developed country in over a decade.
- In February, India signed an FTA with the UAE and is currently working on FTAs with Israel, Canada, UK and the European Union.
- The Agreement encompasses cooperation across the entire gamut of bilateral economic and commercial relations between the two friendly countries, and covers areas like:
- Trade in Goods, Rules of Origin.
- Trade in Services.
- Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT).
- Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures.
- Dispute Settlement, Movement of Natural Persons.
- Telecom, Customs Procedures.
- Pharmaceutical products, and Cooperation in other Areas.
- ECTA provides for an institutional mechanism to encourage and improve trade between the two countries.
- The ECTA between India and Australia covers almost all the tariff lines dealt in by India and Australia respectively.
- India will benefit from preferential market access provided by Australia on 100% of its tariff lines.
- This includes all the labour-intensive sectors of export interest to India such as Gems and Jewellery, Textiles, leather, footwear, furniture etc.
- On the other hand, India will be offering preferential access to Australia on over 70% of its tariff lines, including lines of export interest to Australia which are primarily raw materials and intermediaries such as coal, mineral ores and wines etc.
- Under the agreement, Indian graduates from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) will be granted extended post-study work visas.
- Australia will also set up a programme to grant visas to young Indians looking to pursue working holidays in Australia.
