ISDS Case Map
Australia
Australia's business leaders have outlined an ambitious set of goals for the free trade negotiations with China.
China and Australia are looking to make substantial progress in free trade negotiations with the aim of signing an agreement within two years, Ministry of Commerce spokesman Chong Quan said on Monday.
Rio Tinto Australia managing director Charlie Lenegan told an Australia-Japan business conference in Sydney today the foundation for such a treaty had been laid over the past 50 years, since the signing of a Commerce Agreement between the pair in 1957.
This article analyses the social forces that supported and opposed the AUSFTA, explores why the agreement was signed despite widespread public opposition in Australia, assesses the impact of oppositional campaigns on the content of the agreement in some key areas and analyses the environment and labour chapters.
A meeting between Australia's new Trade Minister, Warren Truss, and his veteran Chinese counterpart Bo Xilai has failed to advance negotiations on a free trade agreement, throwing into doubt whether a deal can be concluded within a two-year timeline.
Australian manufacturers should not be concerned about a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) with China, Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai says.
For many farmers in both China and Australia, whose agricultural trade experts were attending a conference last Wednesday, rain is a rarity, so longing looks were cast at the muddy streets and umbrellas outside.
The conference, focused on the agricultural issues involved in negotiating a Free Trade Agreement, was held in Xian, the ancient capital of 13 Chinese dynasties and the heartland of Chinese agriculture.
When the idea of a free trade agreement with Japan was floated four years ago, there was not much enthusiasm in Tokyo.
Do the Pacific Islands' negotiators genuinely hope they can negotiate a beneficial Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union or are they simply going through the motions and doing what is required of them under the Cotonou Agreement 2000? In the secretive chess game of trade negotiations it is impossible to know.
Agriculture minister Peter McGauran's lightning trip to Xian, home of the famed terracotta warriors, yesterday was to open a joint agriculture conference intended to persuade the Chinese that Australian farmers are no threat to their 800 million peasant counterparts, most of whom are barely above the poverty line and who form a potentially volatile force in Chinese politics.
