Critical minerals in Australian FTA; duty cuts on farm items unlikely: Piyush Goyal

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India and Australia are looking to include critical minerals under the expanded free trade agreement (FTA), even as commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday made clear the government’s reservations on reducing import duties on farm and dairy products.

“India is short of critical minerals. Australia has a large reserve of critical minerals that go into (electric vehicle) batteries, which are not fully processed or manufactured currently,” Goyal said after meeting Australia’s trade minister Don Farrell.

Critical minerals, along with space technology and opportunities in the digital sector, will be key areas of the planned deal, said Farrell. Last year, the two countries signed Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement, or an early harvest scheme, and Goyal and Farrell have been tasked with concluding a full trade deal by the end of the year, having set their sights on achieving $100 billion bilateral trade, more than three times the current level.

While Australia has traditionally argued for lower import duties on agricultural and dairy products, Goyal said that Canberra acknowledged India’s concerns given that a large majority of Indian farmers had small land holdings and their cattle stock was sufficient to meet their own requirements.

Farrell said that Australia would like to include gender and sustainability within the ambit of the trade agreement given its own ambition of transitioning to a decarbonized economy. (TI)