Free-trade talks with Australia set to resume
Negotiations between China and Australia for a free-trade agreement are expected to resume next month with a focus on agriculture, according to New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma.
'Australia expects China to present a revised tariff offer on goods, including agriculture, at the June round. Market-access negotiations in this area have been on hold owing to Australia's request for China to improve its initial tariff offer,' Mr Iemma told the South China Morning Post during his visit to Hong Kong last Friday.
The resumption of free-trade talks between Beijing and Canberra would follow a commitment made by Premier Wen Jiabao and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during their meeting in Beijing on April 10.
It would also follow the groundbreaking free-trade pact signed on April 7 between China and New Zealand - the mainland's first such pact with a developed country.
Cheng Dawei, chief expert with the Beijing World Trade Centre, a government-funded think-tank, described the Sino-New Zealand deal as 'of critical importance' to Beijing so it could speed up negotiations with Canberra and enter into talks with other developed economies.
China and Australia started negotiations in May, 2005. Their tenth and latest round of discussions was held from October 22 to 26 last year.
'The new round of negotiations will aim for a free-trade agreement that will be mutually beneficial to both countries,' said Mr Iemma, who is on a trade-promotion mission for New South Wales covering Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.
In their latest round of free-trade talks, China and Australia discussed agricultural products affected by tariff rate quotas (cotton, wheat, rice, sugar, wool and corn). Australia had emphasised its producers would not be a threat to China's farmers.
China is Australia's second-largest export market for agricultural products with exports worth over A$3 billion (HK$22.11 billion) in 2006-07. Australia's largest agricultural exports are wool, raw hides and skins and cotton.
The mainland is also New South Wales' largest merchandise trading partner. The state's total bilateral merchandise trade with China was A$15.353 billion in 2006-07, up from A$13.586 billion in 2005-06, according to data from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
A joint feasibility study by the department and China's Ministry of Commerce estimated that a free-trade deal could boost the gross domestic product of Australia and China by A$24.4 billion and 529.7 billion yuan, respectively, over the period 2006-2015. The study also suggested that such a deal on goods, services and investment could boost bilateral trade by US$5.4 billion in 2015.
