Finance minister Arun Jaitley, who is on a four-day visit to Australia, on Wednesday 30 March said the talks on the FTA are at a fairly advanced stage and being dealt by the commerce ministry.
Jaitley, was meeting Andrew Robb, former trade minister and now Australia’s special envoy for trade. Jaitley said Robb will visit New Delhi next week to hold talks with the commerce ministry.
The talks were started in 2011 to boost both trade and investments between the two countries.
Several rounds of negotiations have been completed for liberalizing trade and services regime besides removing non-tariff barriers and encouraging investments.
Australia is pushing for tariff reduction in dairy, fresh fruit, pharma, meat and wines. On the other hand, India wants zero duty on auto parts, textiles, and fresh fruit, including mangoes and greater access in the services sector.
The bilateral trade stood at $13 billion in 2014-15 as against $12.12 billion in the previous fiscal.
