Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has suggested modifying India’s high tariffs on wine exports from Australia as part of a broader action to improve the two countries’ trade relations.
India’s tariffs on Australian wines can get as high as 150%. Abbott, who is also Australia’s current special envoy to India, is pushing to enforce changes in this trade condition, while also urging his home country to finalize its “early harvest” deal with India by year-end.
In the year ended June, Australia exported 1.5 million liters of wine worth A$6.6 million to India. The latest export value represents a 10% decline over the previous year.
In an opinion piece published in The Australian, Abbott insisted that India must step up and quickly take its “rightful place” among nations amid the supposed growing belligerency of China.
He also appealed for Australia to drastically cut its ties with China and enhance its partnership instead with India, which he claimed was its “natural partner.”
To recall, Australia’s relations with the Chinese state turned sour following its suspicions about the origin of Covid-19 and the latter’s subsequent retaliation by imposing higher export duties on several commodities.
India is the seventh-biggest trade partner of Australia with an annual trade turnover of A$24 billion, according to the Foreign Affairs and Trade Department. The Australia-India relation, Abbott noted, used to be underdeveloped at least before the term of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“If Australian business and officialdom were to make the same effort with India that they’ve long made with China, there’s potential for a family relationship with India that was never likely with China,” Abbott stressed.
