Indian and Australian companies may be able to bid in each other’s central government tenders as the bilateral Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) provides for negotiations, in a chapter on government procurement, to begin in the next 75 days.
Officials said India is likely to get access to about $10 billion worth of Australia’s official procurement, pegged at $60-65 billion annually.
According to the trade pact signed on Friday, a chapter on digital trade will also be negotiated soon. The commerce and industry ministry will begin talks with other ministries on the issue, said officials. “Within 75 days after the date of signature of this agreement, the negotiation subcommittee shall commence negotiations on amendments to this agreement,” said the ECTA.
This will be “on a without prejudice basis in areas including inter alia market access for goods and services, a complete product specific rules schedule, a digital trade chapter and a government procurement chapter, to transform this agreement into a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement,” said the ECTA.
The two sides will establish a negotiation subcommittee comprising government representatives for the purpose.
“Australia has an MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) order under which their government procurement is protected, similar to India’s public procurement (preference to Make in India) order,” said an official, who did not wish to be identified. Moreover, defence is a large part of the $60-65 billion that is not covered in the ECTA, the official said, explaining that likely gains for India could be in the remaining $10 billion government procurement market.
Published By :- Shubham Agarwal
Edited By :- Kritika Kashyap
