The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement will enter into force on 20th December 2015, following an exchange of notes by Australia and China on 9th December, certifying that both parties have completed their domestic processes. This will ensure that the second scheduled round of cuts will be implemented only 11 days later, on January 1. The Minister for Trade and Investment, Andrew Robb, has said it will save our exporters hundreds of millions of dollars in extra tariff payments next year alone – a savings which would have been foregone if the deal had not entered into force until 2016.
Our EXPORTERS will benefit: about 86 per cent of Australia’s goods exported to China — valued at more than $86 billion in 2014 — will enter the country duty free, rising to 96 per cent when ChAFTA is fully implemented. The National Farmers’ Federation estimates that the agricultural sector alone is set to save about $300 million; the dairy industry expects to create 600-700 extra jobs in the first year alone.
On the IMPORT side of the equation, consumers will benefit from more affordable Chinese goods such as electronics, clothing and other household items, as tariffs into Australia are eliminated.
The realization of the China agreement completes the north Asia “trade trifecta,†with three of Australia’s four largest export markets — China, Japan and Korea — covering 49 per cent of all exported goods. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has established a new portal, ftaportal.dfat.gov.au, in which business people can search for information about changes to tariffs, quotas and other trade and investment relations with Australia’s core economic partners.
