SABRA LANE:
The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull flies back into Sydney this morning after three days in India. Mr Turnbull had been talking up a joint Prime Ministerial commitment between himself and India’s PM Narendra Modi to revive free trade talks as a key outcome from that visit. But Mr Turnbull now concedes that despite that a deal may never eventuate. The Prime Minister spoke with the ABC’s South Asia correspondent James Bennett who started by asking why negotiations had broken down in the first place.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look I don’t think there’s any point in getting into a blame game I mean the fact is that there hasn’t been enough progress and so what we’ve agreed to do is to ensure that our negotiators get back to the table, that they identify the respective claims so we can see where they’re close, where they’re far apart or issues that they’re not addressing and they will then report back to both Prime Ministers and that gives a focus on it and it may be that the conclusion will be that the parties are too far apart to enable a deal to be reached at this time.
JAMES BENNETT:
So that is a realistic prospect? You’re open to the fact that a deal worth doing as you’ve said-
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it has to be a deal worth doing and, so it has got to be a deal worth doing but the important thing, that is that Prime Minister Modi and I have given our prime ministerial direction and leadership and impetus to ensure that the two sides will focus on the nitty-gritty of what the CECA, the free trade agreement would involve and then we can identify where if, where, you know, the parties are apart and see how we can bridge those gaps.
JAMES BENNETT:
Why then did Tony Abbott in 2014 declare that there was a deal that could be signed by the end of 2015?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you would have to ask him that. The fact is that the Indian offers have not been adequate to date.
You know, look I don’t want to get into the blame game, there’s no point in that. I know that might be some interest for you perhaps and others.
Mr Modi and I want the matter to be resolved and look we have a great economic relationship and it’s getting stronger all the time and it will grow whether or not there is a free trade agreement but it would obviously be enhanced if there was.
JAMES BENNETT:
Can India really replicate the Chinese economic rise?
PRIME MINISTER:
India is obviously not a country where the government is able to direct investment and production in the way China is. On the other hand, China opened up its market to direct investment, it opened up to trade many years ago. Now India, that is relatively recently but nonetheless from a trade point of view India has had an historically a much more protectionist tradition. Now Mr Modi is changing that but obviously these changes tend to have a period of evolution, they don’t turn on a dime.
[ENDS]