In Australia, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal hailed the recently signed Indo-Australian trade deal, the first India had signed with a developed country in over a decade.
"We finally made a free trade agreement with a developed nation after 10 years. Indian industry is prepared to compete. Our outreach has increased. We've done the highest ever export in our history," he told news agency ANI.
"The Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) between India and Australia will help us create about 10 lakh jobs in the next 4-5 years, but I won't be surprised if it exceeds further. Indian students will also get work visas to work in Australia," he added.
Goyal, who is heading a delegation of 58 Indian business leaders to Australia this week, is on a three-day visit to the country.
India views the agreement as a diplomatic coup that deepens its engagement with Australia at a time when it is under pressure to take a stronger stand against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Both countries belong to the security bloc known as the Quad, which also includes the United States and Japan.
For Australia, the deal opens a huge market to exporters before Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative coalition seeks re-election next month. Friction between the Morrison government and Beijing has brought a series of official and unofficial Chinese trade sanctions on Australian exports including coal, beef, seafood, wine and barley.
The newly signed trade pact with Australia is expected to take bilateral trade from the existing USD 27 billion to nearly USD 45-50 billion in the next five years and the government expects one million jobs to be created in India in the next four to five years.
Both countries inked the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) on April 2.
ECTA is the first trade agreement of India with a developed country after more than a decade and provides for an institutional mechanism to improve trade between the two countries.
India and Australia Economic Corporation Trade Agreement are expected to create millions of jobs for both countries. IndAus ECTA will unlock the huge market of almost 1.4 billion consumers in India to Australian industries.
(with inputs from agencies)
