Australia on course to seal China free trade agreement

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Image credit: flickr user: Flazingo Photos

Australia is closing in on a free trade agreement (FTA) with China after the latest round of negotiations left senior ministers hopeful that the deal can be concluded by the end of the year.

Image credit: flickr user: Flazingo Photos
Image credit: flickr user: Flazingo Photos

The Australian reported on Monday that the deal could be sealed around the time of the G20 meeting in Brisbane in November when Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to meet twice that month.

The pair will meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Beijing and then in Australia, where Mr Xi will attend the G20 and address parliament.

Trade Minister Andrew Robb told The Australian that there was strong political will on both sides to conclude the negotiations, but that there were no guarantees and the “business end’’ of trade negotiations was always the toughest.

“There’s no reason why we can’t see a completion (of the negotiation) by the end of this year. The opportunity is there, if we can conclude the negotiation satisfactorily for both sides, I think it’s still possible to conclude it by the end of this year,” said the Minister.

Adertisement

He confirmed that a solid progress had been made, but declined to give specific details on the negotiation process.

“It’s not a good idea to put all your cards on the table during the negotiation. All I can say is all these things are very complicated… a lot of work had been done, but big important issues like dairy, end up in the final stage of the negotiations… many cases we haven’t finalised are very critical issues,” he told Xinhua.

According to him, however, there is no doubt that both sides would greatly benefit in various economic sectors by the signing of the FTA.

“In agriculture, environmental management, health, education, engineering, accounting and financing we have wonderful services, if freed up, could make very great contributions to China moving to domestically focused economy,” Mr Robb said.

“For Australia, we can get clear guidelines and access to increased investment into Australia, access to China’s key agricultural market, to get opportunities for our services industries to expand into China,” he added.

Meanwhile, the National Farmers Federation is pushing the Government to conclude the FTA with China having witnessed main rival New Zealand increase its dairy trade revenue with China by $3.7 billion since it concluded its FTA back in 2008.

By contrast, Australia’s revenue from China has increased by just $173 million.

“If the government is serious about agriculture being a pillar of the economy, and if in fact agriculture is a core reason why governments complete trade agreements, then the results will be in the China pudding,’’ National Farmers Federation president Brent Finlay said.