Off the wire
• Peacekeeper killed in Sudan's Darfur  • Qatar airways to launch flight from Skopje to Doha in October  • EU extends sanctions against people, companies related to Ukraine crisis  • Backgrounder: China's stance on South China Sea issue  • Procurement fraud, waste in public sector cost Italy 4 bln euros in 2015: report  • Macedonian GDP grows by 3.9 pct in the Q4 of 2015  • Russian FM slams attacks on Russian diplomatic missions in Ukraine  • French diplomat to arrive in Israel in push for int'l peace summit  • Human rights should not be politicized: Chinese diplomat  • Putin orders investigation of attack on journalists in North Caucasus  
You are here: 　 Home

China-Australia FTA cements Aussie competitive advantage: former trade minister

Xinhua, March 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) has cemented the nation's competitive advantage for its traditionally strong industries, former Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said Thursday.

Robb told an audience hosted by the Australia-China Relations Institute that the ChAFTA gives Australian services firms advantages they have never had before.

However, "it needs a cultural change to accept that we've got to move and invest Australian money in China" and export the world class services in demand through the Asian region, he said.

Robb said that with the doors opening on services, Australia's small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), "the biggest drivers and the biggest innovators" in the country, "now have an opportunity not to be going through second or third parties ... and start a business that's got a market potential of over a billion people."

He also noted that the bearish views of China's economy is just "talking ourselves out of the most opportunistic time in our history", pointing out that growth figures can be mis-leading by looking at percentage added rather than monetary value.

The ChAFTA officially entered into force on December 20, 2015. Endit