IAS Current affairs - Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA)

Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA)

Context:

• The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Minster of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Minister of Textiles, Government of India, Shri Piyush Goyal, and Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Government of Australia, Mr. Dan Tehan, MP, signed the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement.

About:

• The India-Australia ECTA is India’s first trade deal with a developed country in over a decade.
• The agreement covers areas such as trade in goods, rules of origin, trade in services, technical barriers to trade (TBT), sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, dispute settlement, movement of natural persons, telecommunications, customs procedures, pharmaceutical products, and cooperation in other areas.
• As part of the Agreement, eight subject-specific side letters addressing various sectors of bilateral economic cooperation were also signed.
• ECTA provides for an institutional mechanism to encourage and improve trade between the two countries.
• The ECTA between India and Australia covers almost all the tariff lines dealt in by India and Australia respectively.
• India will benefit from preferential market access provided by Australia on 100% of its tariff lines.
• This includes all the labour-intensive sectors of export interest to India such as Gems and Jewellery, Textiles, leather, footwear, furniture, food, and agricultural products, engineering products, medical devices, and Automobiles.
• On the other hand, India will be offering preferential access to Australia on over 70% of its tariff lines, including lines of export interest to Australia which are primarily raw materials and intermediaries such as coal, mineral ores and wines etc.

 

Source: THE HINDU.