March 24, 2025
Dhruva Jaishankar, Executive Director, ORF America was quoted in an article by Amanda Hodge of The Australian on how a U.S.-India trade deal will provide a template that could help Australia overcome obstacles blocking the expansion of its own free trade deal with New Delhi:
The Modi government’s determination to avoid reciprocal US tariffs of up to 12 per cent on key exports, from gems and petroleum products to metals and pharmaceuticals, has seen three rounds of cabinet-level negotiations with Washington in recent weeks that have brought the two countries to the brink of a deal.
“They’re calling it a bilateral trade agreement and not an FTA because that would require congressional approval in the US,” Observer Research Foundation America executive director Dhruva Jaishankar told The Australian.
Negotiations would likely “go down to the wire” given the biggest remaining challenge, as with Australia, was finding agreement on agriculture – in India a politically important industry that has historically been shielded from more competitive, large-scale agricultural producers through tariffs and other measures.
“That’s going to be the hardest bit to overcome … but if you can get past this with the US it could help Australia because that second stage (of the Australia India trade deal) has been stuck on some agricultural issues and other items.
“Once the template with the US is in place then it would really help. There would be a lot of alignment with Australia.”
Last month the Albanese government launched a new roadmap for Australia’s economic engagement with India to maximise trade and investment opportunities between the two countries, that were continuing to make progress in negotiations towards an expanded free trade deal.
One way or another, some agreement would have to be reached by April 2 – even if it was to extend negotiations to avoid crippling tariffs that would trigger retaliatory measures and a “vicious spiral which no one wants”, added Mr Jaishankar.