India-Australia FTA to come into force from tomorrow. 10 points

The India and Australia free trade agreement (FTA) will come into force from 29 December which is likely to double the bilateral commerce to $45-50 billion in around five years.

The India-Australia FTA, which was signed on April 2, would provide duty-free access to Indian exporters of over 6,000 broad sectors, including textiles, leather, furniture, jewellery, and machinery in the Australian market.

Labour-intensive sectors which would gain immensely include textiles and apparel, a few agricultural and fish products, leather, footwear, furniture, sports goods, jewellery, machinery, and electrical goods.

Here are key things about this bilateral FTA:

• Under the pact, Australia is offering zero-duty access to India for about 96.4% of exports (by value) from day one.
• Tariffs on 85% of Australia's exports to India will be eliminated and high tariffs on a further 5% of goods will be phased down.
• The Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) will save Australian exporters around $2 billion a year in tariffs, while consumers and businesses will save around $500 million in tariffs on imports of finished goods, and inputs to "our manufacturing sector.
• The tariff commitments provided by India in the agreement will open up access for Australia's exporters of products including critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, lentils, seafood, sheepmeat, horticulture, and wine, it said.  
• Australian service suppliers will reportedly benefit from full or partial access across more than 85 Indian services sectors and subsectors.
• ECTA will also support tourism and workforce needs in regional Australia by making 1,000 work and holiday programme places available to young Indians
• The pact maintains opportunities for Indian students graduating in Australia to undertake post-study work, with a bonus year of stay for high-performing STEM (science, technology, engineering, or mathematics) graduates.
• Customs duty advantage under the India-Australia free trade agreement will help Indian apparel exporters get greater market access in that country as compared to their competitors
• India's ready-made garment exports to Australia have seen a growth of an average of 11.84% over the last 5 years. Going by this growth trend and with the agreement coming into play, AEPC believes that exports to Australia would grow three times by 2025
• India's goods exports to Australia stood at $8.3 billion and imports from the country aggregated to $16.75 billion in 2021-22.