Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said that India and Australia should look at boosting the bilateral trade to USD 100 billion by 2030 from the current level of around USD 27.5 billion.
Goyal, who is in Australia on a three-day visit, said that both the countries are already at an advanced stage of entering into an agreement for greater collaboration in the education sector.
On April 2, India and Australia signed the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (IndAus ECTA) under which both the countries are providing duty free access to a huge number of goods and relaxing norms to promote trade in services.
“I would suggest that our teams should drill down sector by sector to see how we are going to grow this relationship… Let’s be more ambitious, let’s look at USD 100 billion engagement by 2030… So, we are looking at quadrupling this relationship in eight years,” Goyal said on Wednesday.
Both the countries are also looking at things like providing dual degrees and signing mutual recognition agreements to promote services trade.
Goyal said that areas where both the countries can increase collaboration include education, research, startups and agri tech.
The minister also sought investments from Australia in areas like infrastructure.
“We have a big market and people aspire for a better quality of life. This gives a huge opportunity for India and people around the world,” he said, adding that Australia has a huge investible surplus.
“Your investible surplus can get a fair return in India,” he said.
The minister also emphasised on the need to strengthen air and shipping connectivity.
“I have already talked to DP World for example in the UAE last week when I was there that they may look at expanding direct shipping lines and connectivity to Australia from India,” Goyal said.
Speaking on the occasion, Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan said the trade pact is “unity agreement” and a comprehensive one.
When asked about the possibility of agri business visas like Vietnam, Australian trade minister Dan Tehan said: “Given the nature of the agreement and it’s a living agreement we want to see if we can extend mobility in other areas.
“Down the track, there is no reason why we couldn’t look at agriculture workers or other sections of society that we need here… It is one we have under active consideration, we will continue to work on as the agreement enters into force.” Goyal is leading a business delegation here.
In a separate joint press briefing, Tehan said that keeping the Indo-Pacific free and open as a place where liberal democracies can flourish is just so, “so so important”. He was replying to a question about geo politics.
Goyal said, “We now have a Quad between Japan, Australia, the U.S. and India which has many dimensions, both strategic, political. They are working to ensure peace and stability, greater economic partnership between countries in this region”.
“I am quite sure that that dimension on geopolitics, that dimension on the larger world good is going to bring our two countries closer together,” he added.
Exporters’ body FIEO President A Sakthivel, who is here as part of the delegation, said the agreement would help in boosting trade between the countries.
Council for Leather Exports (CLE) Vice Chairman Rajendra Kumar Jalan said that leather is a part of the agreement and the pact would promote its trade with Australia.
Australia is the 17th largest trading partner of India, while New Delhi is Canberra’s 9th largest trading partner. India’s goods exports were worth USD 6.9 billion and imports aggregated to USD 15.1 billion in 2021.
