India and Australia are likely to conclude an interim “early harvest” trade pact in the next one month and move ahead for a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) in 12 months, top officials from both sides said on Friday. The comments came following a meeting between commerce ministers of the two countries in Delhi. “Our teams should be in a position to come up with the interim agreement, early harvest part of the final comprehensive economic partnership in the next 30 days,” commerce minister Piyush Goyal said while addressing a joint press conference with his Australian counterpart Dan Tehan on Friday. The Australian trade minister said both partners want a “quick but high quality” agreement. Tehan is in New Delhi on an official visit to discuss matters related to the India-Australia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).
Earlier, the two partners detailed the areas that would be covered under the early harvest trade deal. The broad areas include goods, services, investment, energy, logistics, standards, rules of origin, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures. The agreement is also expected to cover a wide range of sectors such as mining, pharmaceutical, renewables, railways, gems and jewellery, tourism, defence, textiles, gaming, agriculture, education, and tourism. Tehan and Goyal also renewed the Australia-India memorandum of understanding (MoU) on tourism cooperation to strengthen the sector, with India to further increase visitor numbers, according to a statement.