Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday that talks for proposed free trade agreements (FTAs) with the United Arab Emirates and Australia are “absolutely progressing” and officials from both sides have a deadline to conclude the talks. are working on. Last month, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) formally began negotiations on the agreement, officially dubbed as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). Both sides have expressed their desire to reach a mutually beneficial economic agreement and aim to conclude negotiations by December 2021 and sign a formal agreement in March 2022.
India and Australia have also agreed to end a long-pending free trade agreement by the end of 2022 and an early crop trade agreement by early December. “We have started FTA talks with UAE on September 22 and with Australia on September 30. Both are progressing perfectly,” Goyal said at the India Today Conclave here.
He also said that India is negotiating a similar agreement with Britain and that he will meet his British counterpart the day after tomorrow to discuss the deal. “Now we have to prepare for Indian industry as we are negotiating FTAs with different countries,” the minister said.
Asked about the timelines for concluding and signing these agreements, he said the UAE would be in the next 3-4 months and there would be an early harvest or an interim agreement with Australia outlining the bigger deal. “Both teams are working towards that deadline … so the mood is to really fast-track it,” he said.
When asked about the rules and its predicament for the e-commerce sector, he said that this is a government which has not made a single retrospective amendment in its 7.5 years. “When it comes to e-commerce regulations, which are under consideration and deliberations or FDI policy for consumer protection, there is absolutely no return on any policy. We are repeating what has been said many times. That’s got to be fair play,” he said.
Asked about Tata Sons winning the bid to privatize Air India, he said: “In my mind, the Maharaja is in safe hands and it is time for India to regain its pride in the international aviation sector. ” Tata Sons will re-take Air India – the airline it founded nearly 90 years ago – as the government accepted its winning bid of Rs 18,000 crore to acquire 100 per cent of the debt-ridden state-run carrier Is.
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