India-Australia Free Trade Agreement Ratified By Australian Parliament

Australia’s Parliament on Tuesday (22 November) passed bilateral free trade agreement with India.

The Bill easily passed the House of Representatives on Monday and cleared the Senate hurdle on Tuesday.

The India-Australia FTA was signed in April this year, and was the trade pact that New Delhi had singed with a developed country after over a decade.

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.

On the other hand, India will be offering preferential access to Australia on over 70 per cent 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.