Australia hopes Asia-Pacific trade deal will improve ties with China - report

[rooster59]

Australia hopes Asia-Pacific trade deal will improve ties with China - report

By Lidia Kelly

 

FILE PHOTO: Australia's Minister of Trade, Tourism and Investment Simon Birmingham gestures as he speaks during a signing ceremony with Indonesia's Trade Minister in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 4, 2019. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/File Photo

 

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia hopes that an ambitious trade deal to be signed on Sunday between 15 Asia-Pacific economies will help improve the country's strained relations with China, Australia's Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said.

 

The China-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal to be signed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) could become the world's largest free trade agreement.

 

Covering nearly a third of the global population and about 30% of its global gross domestic product, the deal will progressively lower tariffs and aims to counter protectionism, boost investment and allow freer movement of goods within the region.

 

Australia's ties with China, its biggest trading partner, became frayed after Canberra called for an international inquiry into the source of the novel coronavirus, which erupted in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

 

Trade disputes have hit a dozen Australian industries and threatened exports to China of agricultural products, timber and resources worth billions of dollars.

 

The ASEAN pact offers a platform that can lead to a positive change in relations, Birmingham said.

 

"The ball is very much in China's court to come to the table for that dialogue," Birmingham told The Age newspaper ahead of the conclusion of the ASEAN talks.

 

"It is crucial that partners like China, as they enter into new agreements like this, deliver not only on the detail of such agreements, but act true to the spirit of them."

 

Asked earlier this month whether China imposed restrictions on several Australian imports, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the measures taken by China were "legitimate, reasonable and beyond reproach."

 

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-15

 

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[John Drake]

Stupid Australia joined a Chinese front organization masquerading as a free trade agreement. The Chinese will do what they always do, ignore what suits them and demand everyone else stick to the letter of the agreement. Resolving any complaints will take place in Beijing, where China, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand will judge whether Australia has legitimate standing.

[tonbridgebrit]

The RCEP is going to be the biggest free trade zone in the world. Britain is doing Brexit, and basically, Britain must sign a comprehensive trade deal with the RCEP.  Failure to sign a comprehensive deal will be disastrous for Britain.

[RDavis]

ASEAN have achieved basically nothing in their many years of existance. cambodia and laos are just mouthpieces for China and that will prevent any future achievements. All just a waste of time and taxpayers money

 

[simple1]

4 hours ago, John Drake said:

Stupid Australia joined a Chinese front organization masquerading as a free trade agreement. The Chinese will do what they always do, ignore what suits them and demand everyone else stick to the letter of the agreement. Resolving any complaints will take place in Beijing, where China, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand will judge whether Australia has legitimate standing.

Australia already has an FTA with PRC, we we do with Thailand, which in 2018  accounted for approx $215 billion in two way trade. OP is an extension of a trade grouping, with some tweaking.

Edited November 15, 2020 by simple1

[John Drake]

1 hour ago, simple1 said:

Australia already has an FTA with PRC, we we do with Thailand, which in 2018  accounted for approx $215 billion in two way trade. OP is an extension of a trade grouping, with some tweaking.

 

Which is why Australia currently is begging Beijing to treat it fairly and why all those Australian wines in Thailand only go up in price, not down???

[Traubert]

Interesting which way the wind will blow for Aus now Pompeo is unemployed.

[Edwin Cameron]

China are very dishonest,will lie,cheat and steal anything that's not bolted down,Australia has never and will never Kow-Tao to CCP, Australia's problems are political,not 'Free Trade' they make up some cock and bull story about our product and suspend it at the wharves like they did with our 'Rock Lobsters' that would have been snapped up by any Asean nation,like most of our produce it's ;Clean and Unadulterated' and we just have to get new markets,we don't need the PRC.at the risk of sounding complacent we are in the top 5 economies in the world and second richest. 

[simple1]

20 minutes ago, John Drake said:

 

Which is why Australia currently is begging Beijing to treat it fairly and why all those Australian wines in Thailand only go up in price, not down???

Look at the trade figures they are the reality, nationalist ranting gets nowhere. . Oz- Thai FTA trade is worth about $25 billion p.a. Oz  wine export to Thailand is increasing.

[AgMech Cowboy]

6 hours ago, John Drake said:

The Chinese will do what they always do, ignore what suits them and demand everyone else stick to the letter of the agreement.

Well said. There should be no agreements with China until they open up and let outside virologist, medical scientist and Doctors (outside of WHO, especially Australia and the US) to investigate SARS-CoV-2 (aka COVID-19). There are still so many questions to answer and China will never give us the truth.

[mfd101]

Like all FTAs everywhere: Can't do much or perhaps any harm. May well do some good.

[GreasyFingers]

1 hour ago, Traubert said:

Interesting which way the wind will blow for Aus now Pompeo is unemployed.

Yes the lightweights, Birmingham and the foreign minister, need someone to tell them what to do as they cannot think for themselves. Wonder who it will be?

[petey123]

beg to differ with most of these comments.    australia has erred in slavishly following the dictates of the american empire, an empire which, IMHO, has proven much more disruptive to the peace of the world than has china.     for the americans it's either kowtow to us or become our enemy and, unfortunately, most countries of the world accept the bullying and whatever the u.s. dictates.     the "narrative" of the western world is that china is bad and virtually everything it does is a problem - in reality, it is the u.s. that is the problem...

[mfd101]

1 hour ago, petey123 said:

beg to differ with most of these comments.    australia has erred in slavishly following the dictates of the american empire, an empire which, IMHO, has proven much more disruptive to the peace of the world than has china.     for the americans it's either kowtow to us or become our enemy and, unfortunately, most countries of the world accept the bullying and whatever the u.s. dictates.     the "narrative" of the western world is that china is bad and virtually everything it does is a problem - in reality, it is the u.s. that is the problem...

I think the Vietnamese and Taiwanese might have a different view of their giant neighbour.

[placeholder]

7 hours ago, John Drake said:

 

Which is why Australia currently is begging Beijing to treat it fairly and why all those Australian wines in Thailand only go up in price, not down???

Wine prices went up in Thailand because taxes went up on wine. And as simple1 pointed out, despite that, Australian wine exports to Thailand are increasing.

[Sydebolle]

Well, Mr Birmingham might be in for a big surprise with his hope, that "a trade deal signed yesterday would improve Australia's strained relations with China".

Hope and China in the same sentence does not work, Excellency, but as the saying goes "Hope will die last". Meanwhile get ready to discover new markets for your wines as the Chinese said "Njet" to that part of the trade agreement just the other day. 

[John Drake]

15 hours ago, placeholder said:

Wine prices went up in Thailand because taxes went up on wine.

Which sort of defeats the purpose of "free trade," doesn't it?

[simple1]

1 hour ago, John Drake said:

Which sort of defeats the purpose of "free trade," doesn't it?

 

Australian wines receive preferential treatment from the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement, providing considerable advantage over most other wine producing countries.

 

https://www.austrade.gov.au/Australian/Export/Export-markets/Countries/Thailand/Industries/Wine#:~:text=Wine from almost all other,Trade Agreement%2C March 2015) .&text=Alcohol Excise tax%3A the rate,exceeding Baht 1%2C000 (retail).

[simple1]

1 hour ago, simple1 said:

 

Australian wines receive preferential treatment from the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement, providing considerable advantage over most other wine producing countries.

 

https://www.austrade.gov.au/Australian/Export/Export-markets/Countries/Thailand/Industries/Wine#:~:text=Wine from almost all other,Trade Agreement%2C March 2015) .&text=Alcohol Excise tax%3A the rate,exceeding Baht 1%2C000 (retail).

 

Perhaps some people didn't read the text of the agreement prior to posting emojis - for your benefit...

 

 

The Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement provides Australian wine producers with preferential treatment (with a zero tariff) over other wine exporting counties (with the exception of Chile which has an FTA and New Zealand which has 0 per cent through its Closer Economic Partnership with Thailand). Wine from almost all other countries are subject to a 54 per cent import duty (Source: DFAT, Key Outcomes of the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement, March 2015) .

This benefit to Australian wine exporters multiplies after the application of Thailand’s heavy and complex alcohol excise and VAT tax regime – to where Australian wines (over 1,000 baht) can be around 65 per cent cheaper than wines from other countries (the exception Chile and New Zealand) when the same mark-up is applied. (Source: Austrade calculations)

 

Should you have counter info, please provide.

 

[TSF]

Best thing Mr Birmingham can do is get off his ass and start earning his salary by finding alternatives to China and getting around India, Middle East, and Asia finding new markets for Aussie wine, lobsters, barley, and whatever else he can find new markets for. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket. China is twisting Aussie's nuts over Morrison's comments about an independent investigation into the Wuhan virus outbreak. 

[Eric Loh]

34 minutes ago, TSF said:

Best thing Mr Birmingham can do is get off his ass and start earning his salary by finding alternatives to China and getting around India, Middle East, and Asia finding new markets for Aussie wine, lobsters, barley, and whatever else he can find new markets for. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket. China is twisting Aussie's nuts over Morrison's comments about an independent investigation into the Wuhan virus outbreak. 

Hard to find markets to replace nearly 700 million Chinese middle class with disposable income. 

[tonbridgebrit]

21 hours ago, mfd101 said:

I think the Vietnamese and Taiwanese might have a different view of their giant neighbour.

So you reckon Vietnam and Taiwan don't like China ?

The Vietnamese had the choice to NOT be in this massive free trade zone, but they chose to jump in.  What about Taiwan ?  Taiwan is a democracy, with a democratically elected government. Taiwan has the freedom to build a wall between itself and China. The freedom to stop goods and tourists from mainland China entering Taiwan. But Taiwan would never be stupid enough to do this. Them Chinese in Taiwan want economic growth just as much as them Chinese in mainland China want economic growth.

Is the Beijing government cruel ?  Look, if Beijing  actually wanted to hurt Vietnam and Taiwan, they could easily do to Vietnam and Taiwan what America has been doing (or was doing)  to Cuba and Iran, for decades. Beijing can very easily destroy Vietnam and Taiwan's economy by simply reducing trade and reducing the number of tourists going to those places. As in carry out a trade embargo.

Edited November 16, 2020 by tonbridgebrit

[tonbridgebrit]

8 hours ago, Sydebolle said:

Well, Mr Birmingham might be in for a big surprise with his hope, that "a trade deal signed yesterday would improve Australia's strained relations with China".

Hope and China in the same sentence does not work, Excellency, but as the saying goes "Hope will die last". Meanwhile get ready to discover new markets for your wines as the Chinese said "Njet" to that part of the trade agreement just the other day. 

Making absurd comments that imply criticising China's handling of the CoronaVirus is causing Beijing to partially block Australian wine entering China. Is it surprising that Beijing is angry when the Australian government makes negative comments about China ? Off-course not.

China can increase their imports of coal and iron ore from places like Indonesia and Brazil, if they did this, then Australia will feel the pain. Australian exports of wine are not a big deal compared to the exports of coal and iron ore. And throw in them Chinese tourists, and Chinese buying real estate in Australia. It generates huge revenue for Australia. Got to hope them Chinese will return to Australia once the CoronaVirus thing is over.

[Salerno]

7 minutes ago, tonbridgebrit said:

Making absurd comments that imply criticising China's handling of the CoronaVirus is causing Beijing to partially block Australian wine entering China.

 

Nothing absurd about it at all. Blind freddy doesn't need a propaganda department to see that.