Australia seeking “significant concessions”

A new round of negotiations between China and Australia to establish a free trade deal will be held in December, with cargo and service trade to be the topics of discussion.

The two sides have already met to discuss manufacturing trade, although “we have a long way to go,” remarked Ric Wells, head of Australia’s China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Task Force. Australian companies worry that a free trade deal will introduce a flood of low-cost, high-quality Chinese goods into the country, he explained. “We feel pressure from them, and we need significant concessions from China.”

Trade between the two countries grew at an annual rate of roughly 40 percent between 2003 and 2005, when it reached US$27.3 billion.