Advertisement

Updated November 22nd, 2022 at 12:19 IST

Australian Parliament ratifies free trade deal with India, confirms PM Anthony Albanese

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Twitter on Tuesday that Australia's parliament has passed the free trade agreement with India.

Reported by: Digital Desk
Australia
Image: Twitter/@AlboMP | Image:self
Advertisement

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Tuesday that Australia's parliament has passed the free trade agreement with India. “Our Free Trade Agreement with India has passed through parliament,” Albanese wrote on his official Twitter handle while sharing his picture with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Tuesday, Australia’s Parliament passed bilateral free trade agreements with India as well as Britain, leaving those partner nations to bring the deals into force, AP reported. The deals are crucial for Australia to diversify its exports from the troubled Chinese market to India and to Britain’s need to forge new bilateral trade relations since it left the European Union.

The bills easily passed the House of Representatives on Monday and the Senate made them law on Tuesday. The deals need to be ratified by the respective British and Indian parliaments before they take effect. Neither nation has yet done that. Trade Minister Don Farrell said India had demonstrated its commitment to the bilateral economic partnership through the quality of the deal struck.

“Closer economic ties with India are a critical component of the government’s trade diversification strategy,” Farrell said. He added the British deal was “crucial to boosting our growth.” Under the Australia-Britain deal, more than 99% of Australian goods exports will be duty free, including sheep meat, beef, dairy, sugar and wine.

Albanese announces India visit on the sidelines of G20 summit

Taxes on 90% of Australian goods exported to India including meat, wool, cotton, seafood, nuts and avocados will also be removed. The move comes just days after Albanese announced on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia’s Bali that he will be travelling to India in March 2023. 

"I also met with Prime Minister Modi of India, where we discussed the finalization of the closer economic cooperation agreement between Australia and India, which we regard as being very important for expanding the economic relationship between Australia and India. I will visit India in March," he said, adding that "we'll take a business delegation to India. And that will be an important visit and an upgrade in the relationship that we have between our two nations.”

Meanwhile, the British deal was signed in December by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s administration and has been criticized by its successors for failing to deliver more for Britain. The deals would come into force 30 days after countries have advised each other in writing that the supporting legislation has been passed by their parliaments.

Australian government welcomes Nzogi Okonjo-Iweala

Albanese and his ministers on Tuesday welcomed World Trade Office Director-General Nzogi Okonjo-Iweala to the national capital Canberra. Farrell said topics of discussions with Okonjo-Iweala included how to implement outcomes of the world trade body’s conference in June.

The WTO reached a string of deals and commitments in June aimed at protecting stocks of ocean fish, broadening production of COVID-19 vaccines in the developing world, improving food security and reforming a 27-year-old trade body that has been back on its heels in recent years.

(With inputs from AP)

Advertisement

Published November 22nd, 2022 at 12:19 IST

Your Voice. Now Direct.

Send us your views, we’ll publish them. This section is moderated.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Trending Quicks

BREAKING: Mukhtar Ansari Suffers Heart Attack, Admitted to Hospital in Serious Condition
2 minutes ago
Penn Badgley
2 minutes ago
Ravichandran Ashwin and MS Dhoni
6 minutes ago
Superfoods
9 minutes ago
MS Dhoni lifting Ravindra Jadeja after IPL 2023 victory
15 minutes ago
नाबालिग से गैंगरेप
18 minutes ago
Rain tax to be imposed in Canada from April
25 minutes ago
Tillu Square
27 minutes ago
Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar
33 minutes ago
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Whatsapp logo