ACCI welcomes closer economic ties with India

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) welcomes the Morrison Government’s continuing focus on strengthening economic ties with India, the world’s largest democracy.

As members of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and Business at the OECD, ACCI plays an active role in advocating on behalf of Australian business for open markets and private sector-led growth.

“Given local businesses have been hard hit by COVID, now is the perfect time to continue to bolster economic relations with India and work towards finalising a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as soon as possible” ACCI CEO Andrew McKellar said.

“What we know is that our high quality, Australian made products are in demand overseas and a free trade agreement with India would make it easier and more accessible for local enterprises to sell their products to one of the world’s largest and fastest growing economies.”

“We welcome the Government’s efforts in launching the three Maitri initiatives allowing high achieving Indian talent to study in Australia, supporting professionals to collaborate on research and boosting the role of creative industries. These initiatives continue to build the groundwork for an FTA.”

“The renewal of the Australia-India Memorandum of Understanding on Tourism Cooperation is also a step in the right direction.”

“Even though our international border is opening on 21 February, what was previously our biggest source of tourists, China, remains largely closed due to outbound travel restrictions so it is important that we look to diversity our tourism sector so that it can open and continue to operate.”

“Over 300,000 Australian tourism businesses and their 700,000-strong workforce are set to benefit in growing our tourism relationship with India.”

“The immediate removal of the import tariff on Australian lentils is also a welcome and important move. Many farmers will reap significant benefits from this new trade condition given they saw a record grain harvest this year.”

“Two-way trade with India was worth over $24 billion in 2020 and in the five years before the pandemic this two-way trade and investment doubled. A free trade partnership between our two countries would work to further cement our strong and growing trade relationship.”

“As we have seen with other free trade deals, this would not only benefit Australian businesses but individuals as well through increased job opportunities.”