FTA negotiations with India complicated: Australia

From Natasha Chaku Melbourne, Sep 7 (PTI) Describing the ongoing Free TradeAgreement (FTA) negotiations with India as "complicated",Australian Trade Minister Steve Ciobo today indicated that thedeal was now not a top priority for his government in theshort term. "On India, this is a complicated negotiation. Although theoriginal aspiration was to knock it over in 12 months, thathasn’t been possible," Ciobo told a TV channel here. "We’re now in the process of undertaking a stocktake aboutwhere negotiations are at," he said adding that "so I’ll keeppursuing India, but that’s not our key priority." The minister said that the key priority in the short termfor the Australian government was to sign a FTA deal withIndonesia and in this term was to focus on what Australia cando with Indonesia. Ciobo’s comments came two days after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi held bilateral talks with his Australiancounterpart Malcolm Turnbull on the sidelines of the G20Summit in Hangzhou, China. The talks for Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement(CECA) or FTA between the two sides started in 2011 in a bidto boost bilateral trade and investment. Both sides were expecting to conclude negotiations byDecember 2015, however, there were differences in areas likeduty cut on dairy products and wines. Several rounds of negotiations have been completed forliberalising trade and services regime, besides removingnon-tariff barriers and encouraging investments. PTI NCNSA