John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Trade. To recognise the interests of my constituency in this question, would the minister update the House on progress in negotiations on a free trade agreement between Australia and China? How would a free trade agreement with China help keep Australia’s economy strong?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mallee for his question. Of course, the member for Mallee takes a very keen interest in this important subject of improved access for produce from his electorate into the Chinese market. It is well known that, currently, China is the engine of global growth and that annual GDP growth of 9.5 per cent in China is expected to continue for quite a long time. China’s leaders in fact say that they expect nine per cent plus growth to continue through to 2020. China is already our second largest merchandise export market and trade has quadrupled in the last 10 years. Last week the fifth round of free trade agreement negotiations with China were held in Beijing and very useful progress was made. In those discussions China reaffirmed that the FTA will be comprehensive and that nothing will be agreed until everything is agreed—two very important principles that we have argued for in negotiating this FTA and others. China accepts that sensitive issues such as services, investment and agriculture will be in the free trade agreement negotiation.

Importantly, Australia tabled text of 15 chapters for this meeting and China has now agreed to negotiate, mostly on the basis of that text. China also agreed to include government procurement and investment. China’s government purchasing is growing and is going to be an enormous market in the future. We need to get access to that. Agriculture, manufacturing and resources negotiations will begin in September, and services and investment later in the year.

The recent DHL-Austrade Export Barometer shows more exporters than ever are looking to China for future orders. They are focusing on the growing market in China. Through the FTA negotiations, we are seeking to ensure that there are growing and increasing opportunities for Australia’s exporters in the Chinese market on a fair basis. Our policy of pursuing multilateral trade negotiations, as well as FTAs such as that which we are negotiating with China, is focused on strengthening the Australian economy, providing more opportunity for exporters to grow their export effort from Australia and generating jobs in Australia, keeping the Australian economy strong.