Trade Minister Steven Ciobo has denied claims that negotiations for an India agreement have stalled, and says he expects to visit the country within six months to move discussions forward, reports abc.net.au.
Mr Ciobo said both countries were currently engaged in a "stocktake" of what they hoped to achieve in any eventual agreement, which was originally slated for completion before the end of last year.
Negotiations for closer trade ties with India and Indonesia were at the top of Mr Ciobo's priority list when he replaced Andrew Robb as trade minister in February, but there has been little progress.
Mr Ciobo returned from Indonesia last week "very confident" that he and his new Indonesian counterpart could deliver a closer economic agreement within the next 18 months.
Speaking to ABC Rural about a range of trade issues of Wednesday 10 August, Mr Ciobo also mounted a vigorous defence of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and its inclusion of a investor-state dispute settlement clause (ISDS).
"You can look at the fact that Australia, over the past 25 years, has enjoyed the longest period of economic growth — growth that has been delivered not exclusively by trade liberalisation, but trade liberalisation has certainly played a very big role," he said.
His comments indicate the government will not be prepared to concede any ground in its attempt to shepherd the TPP through the ratification process in the Australian parliament.
