Australian distillers left out of FTA with India

Chief Executive of Spirits & Cocktails Australia , Greg Holland said that the FTA with India lets Australian distillers down.

"What happens is that wine gets a guernsey, and spirits get left out not once, but most of the time. We had discussions with trade negotiators and it just fell completely off the table," he said.

As currently reflected in the the FTA, Indian spirits and wine will arrive in Australia with no tariffs while Australian spirits are exported to India with 150 per cent on top.

"Basically they want to import their spirits into Australia without any landing charge at all...And we know that the quality of those spirits, they're not to an international standard," said Mr Holland.

Spirits and Cocktails Australia is hoping to get some changes made to the FTA before it is finalised. But for the time being, Pernod Ricard's Bryan Fry (pictured) is hopeful that the current UK and Indian trade discussions in which spirits exports are a "big ticket item" may serve as an opportunity for Australia to try and "emulate what they get," he said.

Pernod Ricard distributes leading spirits brands including Jameson, The Glenlivet, Chivas Regal and Beefeater.