The free trade agreement signed with China today paves the way for the next boom in Australia’s exports.
The agreement provides greater access for a range of Australian services industries to the large and growing Chinese market, including financial services, professional services, and education.
Australian services companies already export $7.6 billion of services per year to China making it a critical destination for services exports.
“The Chinese economy is changing with services set to make a significantly larger contribution to its growth in the future. Australia’s highly developed and competitive service sector is well placed to export to fill China’s demands” said ASR President James Bond “We have a comparative advantage in many services such as architecture, engineering, financial services, education and health care. This agreement paves the way for Australian companies to have greater and easier access to the growing Chinese market.”
“We have the experience, we have the skills and through this agreement we now have access.”
The agreement provides the greatest access to the Chinese market of any of the agreements China has signed with other countries so far.
“The Government has negotiated an outstanding agreement for services. It is a testament to the Government and DFAT’s skills as negotiators that Australia has achieved such an impressive level of access.” said Mr Bond.
“The conclusion of the China FTA off the back of the Korean and Japan agreements, sets up Australia to broaden its exports to high wage, high skill services and drive growth as the mining investment boom wanes.”
The completion of the agreement full fills a large part of the Australian Services Roundtable’s trade agenda for the past decade.