India-Australia CECA Negotiations

• 21 Jun 2024

Source: TH

Australia is pushing to finalise the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with India by the next 6-7 months, ahead of their federal elections scheduled for mid-2025.

• CECA is a comprehensive trade agreement between India and Australia.
  • It is more comprehensive than earlier India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA).
• The ECTA is a limited trade agreement that came into force in December 2022.
• CECA negotiations were launched in May 2011, which were suspended in 2016 and again re-launched in 2021 with the intention of quickly concluding an ECTA to liberalise and deepen bilateral trade in goods and services, and to then use this foundation to resume negotiations on the more ambitious CECA.
• The CECA is intended to cover 5 main tracks i.e. goods, services, digital trade, government procurement and Rules of Origin/Product Specific Rules Schedule.
  • New areas of interest include competition policy, MSMEs, innovation, agri-tech, critical minerals and sports.
• In 2023-24, India's imports from Australia declined 15% to USD 16.15 billion, while India's exports increased 14.23% to USD 7.94 billion. Australia is India's 13th largest export destination and 14^th largest import source for India.

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