India Trade Deal Might Not Be Possible As Offers Made Not Adequate, Says Australia PM

Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday said it might not be possible to reach a lavish trade deal with New Delhi, despite his and Indian PM Narendra Modi’s attempts to revive talks. Turnbull vacationed India, earlier this week, meeting with business leaders and politicians for the purpose of furthering talks about striking a free trade deal between the two nations. Earlier, it was said that PM Modi is the most followed world leader on Facebook now in the world.

Turnbull, who repeated to Canberra on Thursday following his visits to Mumbai and New Delhi, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that, at this point, a free trade agreement was not viable.

“It may be that the termination will be reached that the parties are too far apart to enable a deal to arrive at this time,” Turnbull said. “The fact is that the Indian proposals have not been adequate to date. It has got to be a deal worth doing.” “The Prime Minister said while talks will not stop between India and Australia, it would take time for India to review its stance on both free trade and protectionism internally.

“The fact is that there hasn’t been sufficient progress, and so what we have agreed to do is to ensure that our negotiators get back to the table. They identify the individual claims so we can see where they’re close, where they’re far apart, and the problems that they’re not addressing,” he said. “The primary thing is that Prime Minister Modi and I have given our prime ministerial direction and leadership and impetus to ensure that the two sides will focus on the nitty gritty of what the open trade agreement would involve.”

Click Here For Latest Politics News

Meanwhile, Australia has maintained India’s push for it to relax some immigration restrictions including on 457 visas which would permit greater numbers of Indians to work in Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation published. Turnbull rejected to be drawn on what had prompted his predecessor Tony Abbott to say in late 2014 the end of 2015 could complete a deal.

During his visit, Turnbull said business leaders Australia and India’s $20 billion two-way trade was “a fraction of what we should aspire to, given the many localities of intersection between our economies. The Prime Minister said he was trusting that figure would grow, with or without a formal trade deal on Wednesday night.”

“Modi and I wanted the matter to be determined, and we have a considerable economic relationship, and it’s getting stronger all the time, and it will grow whether or not there is a free-trade agreement, but it would obviously be magnified if there was.” US President Donald Trump is looking forward to hosting PM Narendra Modi later this year, the White House said in a statement earlier.