Some reflections on the Australia-China Free Trade Agreement negotiation process

Some reflections on the Australia-China Free Trade Agreement negotiation process

The difficulties in multilateral trade negotiations have encouraged many countries to move on to free trade
agreement. An example of this is the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement currently being negotiated in the shadow of the deadlocked Doha Round WTO talks. The Australia-China FTA (ACFTA) has been in the offing since
2005 and has survived a change of government in Australia. It has been prompted by both economic and geopolitical
imperatives. Largely due to differences in the economic, political and cultural outlook of the two countries, the
negotiation process of ACFTA has proved to be slow and difficult. As at August 2012, eighteen rounds of talks have
been conducted between Australia and China. Quick progress has been achieved on the market access to goods and customs procedures chapters, both of which are close to completion. Some progress has been made on the chapters of rules of origin, and technical barriers to trade. The difficult part of the negotiation mainly lies in the ASIG issues. This paper looks at means of overcoming such issues underlying ACFTA negotiation so an early achievement of the agreement between Australia and China can be reached.