Australia is seeking to conclude the pending Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA)—an expanded version of the 2022 Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA)—with India at the earliest. Canberra is pushing for greater access to Indian markets for agricultural products and wine through reduced tariffs.
“Since coming to this job, just over three years ago, I have established a very good relationship with the Indian Trade Minister, Piyush Goyal. We talk regularly, and we meet on many occasions around the world, and I consider him a friend. In fact, on his last visit to Australia, he came and visited my vineyard in the Clare Valley in South Australia,” Don Farrell, Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism, told StratNewsGlobal.
Under CECA, negotiations for which are underway, Australia is seeking enhanced market access for wines and dairy products under a reduced tariff regime. India, however, has been resisting such moves.
The ECTA, which came into effect in December 2022, already covers wines and spirits. It reduced India’s tariffs on Australian bottled wine from 150% to 50% for bottles over $5, and to 25% for bottles over $15, phased in over nine years.
Canberra now wants steeper tariff cuts under CECA. To support this, an Australia-India Joint Dialogue on Wine has been established to facilitate cooperation and information exchange between government and industry representatives.
“India is now the world’s largest country by population and thanks to the policies of the current government, living standards are very quickly improving. My understanding is that by 2030, you’ll have something in the vicinity of 900 million people in the middle class,” said Farrell.
“As people’s living standards increase, their demand for high-quality food and wine also increases. We see fantastic opportunities for Australia, which has a wonderful, clean and green image for its agricultural products, to supply much of the food and wine into India,” he added.
Taking a swipe at the United States and President Donald Trump’s trade tirades, Farrell—without naming the country—said this is the time to secure robust trade deals, and that protectionism is not a viable path.
He stressed that India and Australia “need to demonstrate to the rest of the world that protectionism is not the way to improve the prosperity of populations. It’s free and fair trade that will get you to that point.”
Farrell also said India and Australia are on the “cusp of a golden era” and need to deepen engagement by doing more business and investing in each other’s economies.
On the Adani Group’s Carmichael coal project in Queensland, Farrell said the Australian government “supports” the mining activities there. “It has been a very successful mining operation and to the best of my knowledge, I’ve not been aware of any difficulties with that particular mine,” he said.
The Carmichael Project is a large-scale thermal coal mine in the Galilee Basin, Queensland, developed by Adani Group under Bravus Mining and Resources, with an investment of $17 billion.
“We do a two-way investment, so it’s not just us providing investment into India. We want to see more investment from Indian companies,” said Farrell, adding that Canberra is seeking Indian investment in critical minerals and rare-earth mining.
On challenges faced by Australian companies in India, Farrell said: “I think the biggest challenge is that like in Australia, you’ve got a federal structure. You can reach agreements on how the federal structure might work, but then you have states that have additional rules and regulations which you have to comply with.”
“Australian companies understand the rules and how to work through the system. You’ve got to be a bit persistent. From an Australian company point of view, what I would say to them is you can get advice about the challenges, but you’re going to have to devote some resources to getting your foot in the door,” he added.
