India and Australia will sign a comprehensive trade agreement by the top of 2022 and an early harvest trade deal by Christmas later this year.

As talks on the proposed Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) gain pace, both government’s have decided to exchange the primary list of offers by October.

This was announced at a joint media briefing with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan, who is currently visiting for talks on the deal.

“It will cover goods, services, investments, govt procurement, logistics, standards, rules of origin. we’ve decided to exchange offers by the top of October,” Tehan said. there’ll be dedicated negotiating teams continuously interacting to quickly sign the deal, he added.

“Both negotiating teams will start working immediately, identifying the sectors,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said. He added the newest talks are built upon earlier discussions on the matter, but hinted that a replacement perspective is guiding the discussion process.

Both sides had announced last month that they aim for an early harvest trade deal by December 2021. An early harvest trade deal is one during which both parties log off on a group of relatively easily achievable deliverables. Such pacts target specific goals like tariff reduction and market access on select items while leaving more contentious items off the agenda.

Moneycontrol had recently reported that the deal might be the primary one to possess a proper chapter on tightening supply chains between the countries.

Discussions on market access for Australian dairy products and meat, aside from Australia’s discomfort with opening up services exports, have proved to be major sticking points within the deal, talks on which had begun in 2011.

Senior Aussie trade officials had earlier told Moneycontrol that Australia aims to significantly expand business with India in diverse sectors like food and grains, core minerals, and high-tech equipment.

Australia was India’s 15th largest trading partner, as of 2020-21, with trade worth $12.29 billion, and a deficit of $4.2 billion. Earlier this month, Australia also signed the Trade and Investment Framework Arrangement with Bangladesh.