"India-Aussie FTA negotiations may slow down for LS polls"

The ongoing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations between India and Australia may slow down due to the coming general election in 2019, Australian Deputy High Commissioner to India Rod Hilton said Thursday.

Both the countries are committed to the FTA to expand trade relations and all trade agreements take time to finalise due to complexities involved, he said.

But with elections round the corner, there may be a temporary slowdown of the negotiations, Hilton told reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session with the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The negotiations for the pact, dubbed as Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and Australia started in 2011.

Several rounds of negotiations have been completed for liberalising trade and services regime, besides removing non-tariff barriers and encouraging investments. But, the two sides have yet to resolve issues pertaining to goods and services, officials said.

Australia was trying to realign its exports basket that is highly overweight on coal which accounts for 65-70 per cent of its total exports to India.

"We want to realign the export basket. Hope the negotiations for FTA will help towards that goal," he said.

According to Hilton, West Bengal has received only one per cent of Australia's total investment of around USD 10.3 billion into India in 2017. However, there is a scope to enhance trade investments into the state.

The Australian government identifies West Bengal as one of the top 10 states which is likely to be of 'particular interest' for Australian businesses, he said.

The Australian government also decided to reopen a consulate in Kolkata which was closed a few decades back owing to trade union issues, Rod said.