Mr Jinping will address parliament in Canberra during his visit on Monday 17 November, and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has indicated the Federal Government is optimistic in concluding negotiations for an FTA, which began in 2005.
“We are quite optimistic, but there’s not an agreement until everything’s agreed,”? Ms Bishop told Fairfax Media.
“They’re continuing to negotiate and I believe that some considerable progress has been made of recent days, so we will obviously push for as early an agreement as we’re able to get.”?
The key benefits of such an agreement would include the removal or reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, while also potentially opening the doors for further Chinese investment in Australian LNG.
Meanwhile, an FTA with China would follow recent bilateral agreements with Korea and Japan.