Preparing the FTA pitch: India, Australia eye full deal amid US tariffs

Three years after India and Australia signed an interim trade deal, the two sides are moving decidedly towards a full-fledged free trade agreement. They have rising US tariffs to contend with

Announcing the interim trade deal between India and Australia on December 29, 2022, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal drew a cricketing analogy. The agreement, he said, came with the “speed of Brett Lee and the perfection of Sachin 

Tendulkar” — highlighting the pace and precision with which the pact was completed. 

The deal, officially known as the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) holds a special place for Goyal. It was India’s first trade agreement with a developed country in over a decade, after New Delhi’s decision to walk out of the China-backed RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) in