Piyush Goyal: Australia early harvest deal in 30 days, final FTA in 12-18 months

“You have a very, very long partnership in the making which we will finalise in the next 30-odd days,” Goyal said, noting the deal would “in some sense” cover most areas of interest for both countries.

He added the FTA would bring opportunities across sectors including mining, pharmaceuticals, health, education, renewables, railways, gems and jewellery, tourism, defence and textiles. The Commerce Minister also said the two countries would hope to complete the final agreement dealing with the remaining sensitive issues within 12-18 months after the early harvest agreement.

Tehan said the two countries were looking at mutual recognition of educational qualifications and cooperation in the areas of critical minerals and rare earth elements which are critical to future industries including renewable energy and electric vehicles. “We have plentiful supplies of these rare earths and critical minerals in Australia. But we need places for them to be processed, we need to make sure that they go into manufacturing here in India,” he said.

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