ISDS Case Map
Australia
Cabinet ministers for international trade matters have approved a joint report submitted by Japanese and Australian experts recommending initiating talks on a bilateral free trade agreement, government officials said.
The study group concluded that a comprehensive and WTO-consistent EPA/FTA would bring about considerable benefits to both countries.
The leaders of Malaysia and Australia declined to set a date for the completion of a free-trade deal due to have been agreed by mid-2006, saying the negotiations should not be hurried.
Australia's proposed Free Trade Agreement with Japan is facing stiff opposition from Japanese farmers. The deal, if finalised, would be Australia's largest bilateral trade agreement, and could open the traditionally closed Japanese market to Australian agricultural products. But Japanese farmers say the deal puts their futures at risk.
Australia may be forced to rush through inadequately tested and unsafe medical nanotherapies because of its free trade agreement with the US, a health technology regulation expert says.
Free access for all Australian farm products to the Japanese market will be on the table when free trade agreement negotiations start, but some won't be there at the finish.
South Australia will earn at least $250 million annually from an Australia-China Free Trade Agreement according to a Monash University Centre of Policy Studies report for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Australia is interested in negotiating a free trade pact with India, provided it is comprehensive and takes into account its interest in opening up trade in farm products.
Australia and Chile have agreed to develop a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement.
This article is an introduction or guide to PICTA, PACER and the WTO in the Pacific. The 'guide' gives readers basic knowledge of both trade agreements and the stepping stone function they provide towards the WTO re-colonising the Pacific.
