Australia
It’s been a year since the signing of the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA); the global pandemic could delay the next critical steps.
Singapore and Australia have committed to allowing financial institutions to choose where their data is stored and prohibiting data localisation, among a raft of other agreements.
Trade Ministers of both countries are working on what they can offer each other.
The Trump Administration has called on the Morrison Government to extend its "step-up" strategy in the Pacific to South-East Asia, as Washington grapples with China’s rising regional influence.
As ministers of the member countries of the RCEP meet for final negotiations over the trade agreement this week, regional lawmakers today expressed concern about the lack of parliamentary and public oversight of the deal, as well as its potential human rights impacts.
The Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are taking on disproportionate binding commitments in exchange for false promises of benefits from the regional free trade deal known as PACER-Plus.
What the development assistance arrangement results in, is aid money, tightly controlled by Australia and New Zealand to flow to areas that will make Forum Island Countries uphold their commitments on market access, ultimately benefiting the two metropolitan Parties.
PACER-Plus itself achieved little by way of actual improvements for Pacific Islander workers to access the labour markets of Australia and New Zealand.
India and Australia agreed to consider reviving stalled negotiations on the proposed free trade agreement (FTA)
Australian Trade Minister leads high-level delegation, holds talk with Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal.
PAFTA removes barriers to trade in goods between Australia and Peru across various industries and key barriers to services trade.
New Delhi wants to resume negotiations on the long-pending Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with Australia, talks for which stalled in 2015.
The economic importance of IA-CEPA remains to be seen, at least from Indonesia’s side. IA-CEPA would require many changes in Indonesian regulations at the ministerial and local levels, which has been very challenging in the past.
Australian Trade Minister will meet his Indian counterpart, likely to discuss RCEP and long-pending bilateral trade agreement.
Indonesia is currently a major perpetrator of human rights abuses against its own minority groups, specifically their LGBTQI community, which makes this partnership questionable in view of Australia’s signature on the UN Human Rights Charter.
Bilateral trade deal sceptics have criticised the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA) as more of a strategic public relations document than genuine economic reform.
The Australian minerals industry has access to new export markets and investment opportunities with the Peru-Australia Free Trade Agreement (PAFTA) entering into force today.
The IA-CEPA has been ratified by the legislatures of both countries and is thus strongly based on a national political consensus, allowing for immediate implementation..
The Indonesian parliament has given the green light to a new trade deal with Australia, paving the way for the agreement to be signed in Canberra on Monday.
British Foreign Secretary hopes Australia will be in the first wave of free trade deals his country can secure in the post-Brexit era.
