The $500 billion dream: Top minister eyes Australia-India trade boom
By Matt Wade
An influential Indian cabinet minister says Australia and India should aim for a $500 billion economic relationship, a more than tenfold increase on the current value of trade between the two nations.
India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal says the “huge trust” developed between the two nations during the past decade makes ambitious trade and investment targets possible.
India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal says the second stage of a historic 2022 Australia-India trade deal will be finalised soon.Credit: Natalie Boog
Goyal, who is visiting Australia to promote trade and investment, also predicted that the second stage of a historic 2022 Australia-India trade deal – allowing Australian firms greater access to India’s giant market – would be finalised soon.
He added that the goal of reaching a “US$500 billion economic engagement” between the two nations was canvassed at a meeting he attended with business leaders in Sydney on Monday.
“For a moment, I was taken aback, but I love big targets,” he said. “When I thought about it, if I expect [India] to be a $2 trillion exporting nation, then I’ll roughly be a $2 trillion importer – so India will have a $4 trillion trade.”
“Australia is already at about $1 trillion [in trade] and that will grow to about $1.5 trillion ... I’m talking of around 2030. So collectively we will be at about $5.5 trillion, and we should aim for 10 per cent of that to come from Australia and India. Let’s aim big – given the huge trust between the two countries, I would think we should go for it.”
Australia’s two-way trade with India was valued at $46.5 billion in 2022, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade figures show.
The International Monetary Fund has forecast that the Indian economy, the world’s fifth-largest, will expand by a robust 7 per cent this year. In 2023, India surpassed China to become the world’s most populous nation.
Goyal has held several economic portfolios in the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi since 2014 and is on the national executive of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
He played a key role in finalising the Australia-India Economic Co-operation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) in 2022. It was India’s first trade deal with a developed country in more than a decade.
Trade Minister Don Farrell says a 2022 trade deal with india has created opportunities for exporters.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“There’s been zero criticism of this agreement in both geographies, so it’s truly a win-win,” Goyal said.
Trade Minister Don Farrell, who met Goyal in Adelaide on Wednesday, said the trade pact with India had created new opportunities for businesses and exporters, while reducing prices at the checkout.
“Since this trade deal entered into force in November 2022, around $30 billion worth of Australian exports have entered India tariff-free, and Australians have saved around $225 million on goods from India,” he said.
There is now a push to conclude a second more ambitious trade pact called the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement.
Recent elections in India have slowed negotiations for this agreement, but Goyal said the deal would “soon be finalised”.
While in Sydney, Goyal met with NSW Premier Chris Minns and attended a community reception at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
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