PASSAGE ON India-Australia Economic Co-operation and Trade Agreement (ECTA)

India has recently signed the Economic Co-operation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) with a developed country. The Agreement encompasses cooperation across the entire gamut of bilateral economic and commercial relations between the two friendly countries, and covers areas like Trade in Goods, Rules of Origin, Trade in Services, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, Dispute Settlement, Movement of Natural Persons, Telecom, Customs Procedures, Pharmaceutical products, and Cooperation in other Areas. Eight subject specific side letters covering various aspects of bilateral economic cooperation were also concluded as part of the Agreement.

ECTA provides for an institutional mechanism to encourage and improve trade between the two countries. The ECTA covers almost all the tariff lines dealt in by the two countries respectively.