Senior officials of India and Australia are expected to hold their next round of talks for the CECA in November in New Delhi.
The commerce and industry ministry said that the tenth round of negotiations were held from August 19-22 in Sydney in the areas of goods, services, digital trade, government procurement, rules of origin and agri-tech.
“The meeting saw intensive discussions and negotiations to narrow down the differences through better understanding of each other’s proposals and the way to bring in convergence,” the ministry said, adding that efforts were made by both the sides keeping in mind the domestic sensitivities for reaching a balanced outcome.
The tenth round was held after a gap of around five months from the concluded ninth round.
However, intersessional meetings were held between these two rounds to bring in convergence on all these tracks as well as under other remaining tracks.As per the ministry’s statement, it was decided that given the clear understanding of each other’s proposals under the five tracks, track leads from both the sides would work out action plan for negotiations through virtual mode intersessionally before the next round, likely to be held in India.The two sides also reviewed their bilateral trade and investment relations and underscored commitment to strengthen and enhance the economic partnership through building up on the positive effects of India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), which entered into force on December 29, 2022. Both the sides made efforts to ensure that the CECA negotiation delivers meaningful benefits and balanced outcome for both sides.
Canberra is proposing to hold the first meeting of the India-Australia Agri Tech Forum (IAATF), a newly constituted forum by Australia, in New Delhi on September 23, with the Indian agricultural stakeholders namely industry, research institutions and government for building on mutually beneficial relationship by exploring opportunities for focused activity around technology transfer and knowledge sharing in agriculture and horticulture sectors, according to the statement.