India, Australia keen to boost trade

In order to bolster bilateral trade, India on Thursday urged Australia to tackle the issue of non-tariff barriers.

An Indo-Australian Trade and Economic Framework Agreement covering trade, services and investment has also been mooted at the Joint Ministerial Commission meeting in Sydney.

"We hope that this agreement will establish a new and forward looking mechanism to guide our bilateral economic interface," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, who is heading the Indian delegation, said.

The framework would work as a mechanism for addressing the issues of business operators from both sides, he added.

India proposed to step up bilateral trade from the present $5.5 billion to $8 billion in the next two years. But Nath cautioned that this target will not be met if the issue of non-tarrif barriers, particularly the sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures and technical barriers, to trade in Australia were not tackled.

"We have to create a truly facilitative climate if we are going to experience a quantum leap in trade," he said.

Nath, who also inaugurated the 'Destination India' summit organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, invited Australian entrepreneurs to invest in India and assured the government's commitment to reforms.

"The present government is committed to economic reforms and was examining an India specific model for FDI into retail.

Economic reforms are irreversible. We have calibrated them to India's specific needs," he said.

Nath said Foreign Direct Investment was an integral part of economic strategy. FDI is allowed under the automatic route in most of the sectors except a few sensitive ones, he said.

"Where equity caps exist, these were being reviewed and our attempt is to do away with them completely. Most recently we opened construction development and even the retail sector is under examination," he said.

Stressing that India was keen on greenfield investments, Nath said India was looking for investments that created employment opportunities, brought in technology and not the one that replaced Indian capital. Infrastructure presented a big window of opportunity for foreign investment, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Australian IT and Communications Minister Helen Coonan said his country would be reviving its Memorandum of Understanding with India in the information and communication technology sector.