NEW DELHI: Commerce Secretary, co-chaired the first Joint Committee Meeting along with his Australian counterpart in Canberra and reviewed the progress of India-Australia CECA.
India and Australia are working to fast-track negotiations on the India-Australia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with both sides guiding both the chief negotiators to expedite the process towards a comprehensive and balanced agreement between the two trading powers. Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal, co-chaired the first Joint Committee Meeting along with his Australian counterpart George Mina in Canberra and reviewed the implementation of India-Australia ECTA and reviewed the progress of India-Australia CECA. The rules of procedure for the JCM was jointly approved, adopted and nine priority areas of work were identified under ECTA for which a pathway and timeline was decided by the JCM.
The delegation led by Sunil Barthwal also participated in a number of constructive and outcome-oriented meetings with Indian and Australian business leaders around ways to deepen the bilateral economic partnership and aspirations for the CECA based on their perspective on deepening trade and investment relationships. Rajesh Agrawal, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce and Chief Negotiator India-Australia CECA had a detailed meeting with his Australian counterpart wherein all outstanding issues were discussed and the roadmap for future negotiations was firmed up.
India is also seeking to deepen collaboration with New Zealand in pharma, agriculture, and food processing industries and enhance services sector trade after the delegation led by the Commerce Secretary held a series of these consultations with the Minister for Trade of New Zealand Todd McClay, Acting Chief Executive and Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand Brook Barrington, the India-New Zealand Business Council (INZBC) and the 11th India-New Zealand Joint Trade Committee. Both sides are keen to tap the existing huge potential in both economies and mutual trade complementarities as well as the scope to increase trade and people-to-people contacts.
The meetings addressed bilateral trade matters of mutual interest, including issues related to market access, non-tariff barriers (NTBs), sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures on products like grapes, okra, and mangoes, mutual recognition arrangement (MRA) in organic products, simplified homologation including through mutual recognition of comparable domestic standards for vehicles, etc.
Both parties reaffirmed their commitment to resolve these issues through constructive dialogue and cooperation under the existing mechanism of the JTC. Among the focused discussions on several key areas aimed at promoting bilateral trade and cooperation, were, progress on market access issues, economic cooperation projects, and explored opportunities for new initiatives. Both sides discussed the establishment of robust bilateral economic dialogue architecture and the creation of working groups in sectors like agriculture, food processing, storage and transportation, forestry, and pharmaceuticals to facilitate ongoing collaboration on key trade and economic issues.
The services sector and enhancing its scale for bilateral trade was given special focus during the discussions held at various levels which revealed great interest from both sides for increasing business-to-business as well as people-to-people contacts and to work on the skill gaps and how the same can be strengthened through capacity building and improving the ease of mobility. It touched upon areas such as hospitality sector including adventure tourism, nursing, telemedicine, education, air connectivity, Joint R&D (wherever feasible), startups, etc.
Collaboration in area of pharmaceuticals and medical devices sector was discussed at length, including the adoption of fast-tracking of regulatory processes and quality assessment of manufacturing facilities using, as appropriate, the inspection reports of comparable overseas regulators. Greater sourcing of medicines from India and cooperation in medical device sector was also discussed.
Both parties briefly explored opportunities for collaboration in digital trade, meeting nationally determined contributions, cross-border payment systems, among others. The discussions also included cooperation in horticulture sector, including cooperation in kiwi fruit sector (quality and productivity, proper storage in pack houses and their suitable transportation) as well as the dairy sector.
Once working groups are established, India and New Zealand will review the progress made by those working groups and the recommendations thereof at regular intervals.