ISDS Case Map
Australia
Australian Prime Minister John Howard will pay a two-day visit to China from today to promote gas exports and plans for a free-trade deal with the booming, energy-famished economy.
Both the Chinese premier and the Australian prime minister have expressed their hopes of accelerating talks on a free-trade agreement yesterday in the southern city.
Fewer than a quarter of Australian manufacturing companies support a free trade agreement with China, according a survey by the Australian Industry Group.
The crisis in the automotive components sector will continue to worsen as long as the Federal Government permits unfair international competition and refuses to implement a strategic industry policy.
Australia will consider negotiating a free trade agreement with several Middle Eastern countries, Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile said Wednesday.
THE Government will look at expanding its free trade negotiations with the United Arab Emirates to take in a deal with a much wider group of Middle Eastern nations.
The member states of the Gulf Co-operation Council - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE - have asked Australia to incorporate the bilateral negotiations into a wider deal.
New Zealand and Australia will have to be patient over striking a free trade deal with ASEAN countries, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Monday.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said that the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement could be updated to become a "gold standard FTA".
The last-minute scrapping of the $3 billion Snowy Hydro float, attributed by the Government to the public outcry at the prospect of losing control of an "icon", may have been partly prompted by fears it would contravene Australia's free trade agreement negotiated with the US last year.
A recent study led by Thammasat University academic Rangsan Thanapornpan claims that the Australia-Thailand free trade agreement has benefited only a small group of industrialists, while people in the agricultural sector have been adversely affected.
