One of Australian Grape & Wine’s ATMAC Project commitments this year, is to support the delivery of an international wine regulatory forum in 2022/23. Following extensive preparations during the first half of 2023, we arranged and delivered the first India – Australia Wine Regulatory Forum (the forum) in Delhi on 31 May & 1 June 2023. The forum was aimed at exploring collaborative opportunities, sharing information in support of removing regulatory barriers to trade and building the wine category in India. The project has been seeking to use the Australian wine sector’s trade technical and regulatory expertise to build relations between both government and industry. This in turn is then used to collaboratively support efforts to grow the wine category in India, for mutual benefit. It will also support activity which liberalises trade and removes technical barriers to trade, helping to create a more amenable environment for future free trade negations with India.
The forum was attended by key Indian wine industry and government representatives, forming the basis for discussion for the first Joint Dialogue on trade in wine, which occurred directly after the forum on 1 June 2023. The Joint Dialogue is a key deliverable which was established under the side letter on trade in wine under the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement.
The forum was opened by The Hon Barry O’Farrell AO, Australian High Commissioner to India, with an additional food and wine event occurring at the High Commissioners residence following the conclusion of the first day of the forum. Australian Grape & Wine (Lee McLean & Damien Griffante) presented at the forum along with Wine Australia (Rachel Triggs) AWRI (Eric Wilkes), Austrade (John Southwell), Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry (Paul Denny) and Indian government and industry representatives.
A brief overview of the forum was provided by local media wine writer who attended the forum. The Government media release on the Joint Dialogue from The Hon Murray Watt, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry & Minister for Trade and Tourism, Senator the Hon Don Farrell is available here.
