India should be an APEC member: Australian Shadow Trade Minister

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Biswajit Choudhury | 24 Jan, 2019
With trade becoming fundamental for global peace and stability and preventing the US-China kind of trade wars, it is vital to push for an Indo-Pacific free trade zone like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) that should include India, a leading Australian politician has said.

APEC is a free trade agreement among 21 Pacific Rim member economies to which India has been seeking admission. It includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.

Australia has been pushing India's case for induction into the APEC, as well as in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Promoting Indian membership of these bodies has bipartisan support in Australia irrespective of the party in power, Shadow Minister for Trade and Labour MP Jason Clare told IANS in an interview here.

Clarke, who was on a brief visit to New Delhi, also took part in a CII sponsored meeting with representatives of Indian industry like Wipro, Aditya Birla Group, and Vikram Solar, as well as institutions like Amity University which have either an established presence in Australia or are looking to do business there.

"The world is different today from what it was years ago when the United Nations was founded. India is poised to become the world's third largest economy and requires to be represented at the UNSC...it has Australia's support," Clare said.

He referred to the report released last year by the Australian government titled "India Economic Strategy to 2035: Navigating from potential to delivery" authored by its former High Commissioner in New Delhi Peter Varghese which argues that India should be brought into the APEC.

"For Australia, India is a partner in seeking to forge regional institutions in the Indo-Pacific and so needs to be part of the APEC. India needs to represent the Indo-Pacific in APEC, which doesn't make sense without India," Clare said.

In this connection, the Australian politician pointed to the revival of the quadrilateral - "Quad" - initiative that was revived a year ago involving India, Australia Japan and the US as a "welcome initiative on strategic issues."

The Quad of democratic countries advocate a free and open Indo-Pacific for shared peace and prosperity.

"If countries like India, China, Australia need to achieve their growth goals we need peace and stability in the region. Over the long term we need to aim for an APEC free trade agreement that involves the major powers like US, China, India, Australia, Indonesia," Clare said.

Referring to the ongoing US-China trade war, he said that a "lot of people in the US and UK are worried about trade endangering jobs", but for Australia it is important to grow its trade with countries of the region.

"Both Australia and India see China as an important part of inclusive regional institutions," the Australian Shadow Trade Minister said.

On India's chances of APEC membership, he pointed to the hopeful fact of APEC members also being involved in the negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) that includes India. RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the six Asia-Pacific states with which ASEAN has existing free trade agreements (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand).

"APEC members are involved in the RCEP discussions, so it is a logical next step for India to becoming part of APEC," Clare said, adding that he is hopeful about the RCEP negotiations concluding this year.

According to the "India Economic Strategy" report, no single market over the next 20 years will offer more growth opportunities for Australia than India.

The report targets Australian exports to India to grow from $15 billion in 2017 to around $45 billion by 2035 and outward Australian investments to India rise from $10.3 billion to over the $100 billion mark, reflecting a transformational expansion of the relationship.

"Australians have been hesitant about doing business outside the country and they have to be bold about seizing opportunities overseas," Clare said.

On the pending negotiations for an India-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), or free trade pact, he said that Australia is pinning its hopes on an early finalisation of RCEP.

"Since RCEP is a wider free trade agreement proposal, our bilateral CEPA talks will be taken up afterwards. We're hoping to finalise RCEP by end of this year," he said.