Ahead of the implementation of the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), a 106-member business delegation from Canberra is visiting this week to forge ties across agriculture, critical minerals, infrastructure, digital health and education.
Traditionally, the BWE has been studied in serial supply chains. That is also the setting of the famous beer game, where the typical demand pattern across the supply chain looks like this: for a relatively small change in demand seen by the retailer, the demand variability progressively increases at the more upstream wholesaler, distributor, and factory (see the figure below). This leads to capacity shortages, stockouts, excess inventory, and increased operational costs. No wonder BWE has received a lot of attention among academics and practitioners alike.
“Australia is excellent in exploration, extraction, production and processing of critical minerals…and India is strengthening its manufacturing capability. So, we can together improve that supply chain resilience,” Eaton said.”
The ECTA, signed in April, is expected to enter into force this year after both countries complete domestic and parliamentary processes. It is India’s first trade agreement with a developed country after more than a decade and Canberra’s first where dairy has.
Canberra will eliminate tariffs for most critical minerals such as zirconium, titanium, copper, cobalt, nickel, aluminum and tin ores on the ECTA’s entry into force.
Australia has reserves of at least 21 of the 49 critical minerals identified by India and has the potential to be one of the top suppliers of cobalt and zircon to New Delhi. The country also has reserves to supply many other critical minerals to India, including lithium, rare earth elements and tantalum.
Besides trade in goods, the trade pact has chapters on trade in services, digital trade, government procurement, trade remedies, rules of origin, temporary movement of natural persons and dispute settlement.
Source: shorturl.at/mnOZ1
