Mumbai: The Govt. of India has been successful in facilitating gem & jewellery trade in the post pandemic era – first, with the India-UAE CEPA which helped gain remarkable progress in gems & jewellery exports (G&J) to UAE, and now with the India-Australia Economic Cooperation & Trade Agreement (ECTA), which got Australian parliament approval recently.

The historic India-Australia trade agreement is expected to unlock millions of dollars of additional trade due to the preferential access accorded towards India’s gem and jewellery exports to the island nation.

India-Australia has a significant bilateral trade of USD 1.3 billion for gem and jewellery commodities in financial Year 2021-22. Key commodities exported to Australia are plain gold jewellery, studded jewellery and cut & polished diamonds. The main commodities imported from Australia are precious metals i.e. gold and silver bars.

Mr. Vipul Shah, Chairman, GJEPC, said, “Since the India-Australia negotiations started, India’s gem and jewellery exports have witnessed positive growth, complementing the upcoming India-Australia ECTA.

India’s G&J exports to Australia grew 21% to 183.86 million during April – October 2022 as compared to the same period last year.”

“We expect Australia to benefit from access to areas where India is a world leader, such as diamonds. By providing preferential access for Indian gems and jewellery exports, the deal also makes it cheaper for Australian retailers to procure world-class jewellery crafted with finesse from Indian manufacturers. We expect the Agreement to boost bilateral gem and jewellery trade from USD 1.3 billion at present to USD 2 billion.”

“Australia is one of our large suppliers of gold bullion, and until recently, it was also a key supplier of diamonds.” added Shah.