Economic sectors split in bid to secure China FTA
ABC - Thursday, March 30, 2006
Australia will break links between economic sectors in a bid to move the free trade agreement with China forward.
Economic sectors split in bid to secure China FTA
Australia is to break the link between key economic sectors, to start formal negotiations with China on a free trade agreement (FTA).
The offers on goods and agriculture will start before work on services and investment.
China and Australia have had four rounds of negotiations on the scope of a bilateral free trade agreement and are slowly moving to the formal stage of exchanging detailed offers and demands.
To get progress, Australia is to break the link between the four main sectors.
Officials say that work on goods and agriculture will start first, in the middle of the year.
The aim is for negotiations on services and investment to start later in the year.
The shift is a win for China, which originally wanted to do a deal on goods before even talking about services - the strategy it used in free trade talks with South-East Asia.
Despite breaking the sector linkages, Australia’s Foreign Affairs Department says there will be no carve-outs of sensitive areas and Australia intends to sign one comprehensive deal covering all areas.
