Modi expresses concern over falling trade with Australia

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says CECA could be signed by 2016

Expressing concern over the decline in two-way trade between India and Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that this could be addressed by signing the pending Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) at the earliest.

On the other hand, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who concluded his two-day visit to India on Friday, said the CECA should be completed by 2016. The negotiations for this deal started in 2011.

“We are concerned about the decline in bilateral trade in the past two years. We have committed to an early conclusion of CECA,” PM Modi said during a joint press briefing with Abbott.

Although the two-way trade has tripled in the past 10 years, it has been falling for the past couple of years. In 2013-14, bilateral trade stood at $12.2 billion, down 21.5 per cent from $15.4 billion in 2012-13, according to official statistics.

According to the joint statement issued after the meeting between the two Prime Ministers, both sides renewed the commitment for an “early conclusion of an equitable, balanced, comprehensive and high quality agreement”.

The CECA has been stuck over India’s demand for a liberal visa regime for its professionals in Australia, while the latter had been urging India to grant duty-free access for Australian dairy products.

India and Australia also agreed to boost cooperation in sectors such as infrastructure, resources, agriculture, manufacturing, health and education.

Earlier, while addressing a joint business forum of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Assocham, commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave a strong message to Australia for not investing enough in India.

Total foreign direct investment from Australia to India during 2000-2014 stood at only $600 million, while India’s investment to that country in the past decade has been $1 billion.

Sitharaman said the government would soon clear the pending mining leases applied for by Australian companies. These applications are pending in the ministry of mines and with the governments of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.

On Friday, it was decided an India-Australia Business Summit would be held in Delhi early next year. India and Australia also agreed to increase cooperation in defence, counter-terrorism, cyber policy, transnational crime, disarmament and non-proliferation, humanitarian assistance, disaster management and peacekeeping.
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