Trade Update – 14th August 2023: AUSTRALIA LAUNCHES FTA INQUIRY, TRADE NEGOTIATORS HEAD TO BANGKOK, CHINA GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO AUSTRALIAN BARLEY EXPORTERS and many more…
Weekly trade review provided by Chatto Creek Advisory Pty.
Chatto Creek Advisory Pty Ltd is a Melbourne-based strategic consultancy specialising in trade policy advice and government engagement strategy. It is headed by Russell Scoular, an executive with rich government relations, trade policy, and business experience throughout the Asia Pacific.
AUSTRALIA LAUNCHES FTA INQUIRY: A Parliamentary Committee has been asked by Trade Minister Farrell to review Australia’s approach to negotiating trade agreements. Its study will include how negotiating mandates are developed, consultation undertaken and whether the whole process should be legislated.
TRADE NEGOTIATORS HEAD TO BANGKOK: A 5th round of negotiations for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework will be held in Bangkok from September 10-16. It follows earlier rounds in Australia, India, Singapore and South Korea and will focus on the remaining trade, clean economy and fair economy pillars.
CHINA GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO AUSTRALIAN BARLEY EXPORTERS: China has moved beyond the lifting of dumping and subsidy duties on Australian barley and re-registered two major barley exporters CBH Grain and Emerald Grain Australia. The registrations were cancelled in 2020 by China over biosecurity claims.
SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT TALKS TRADE: President Wickremesinghe expects Sri Lanka to become a member of the mega RCEP FTA once the economy has completed its debt restructuring. He told an ASEAN Day Commemoration event in Colombo that Sri Lanka would also pursue more FTAs with ASEAN economies.
NEW ZEALAND LAUNCHES ALL-WOMEN TRADE MISSION: Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds is this week leading New Zealand’s first all-women trade mission to Australia. The 26-member delegation includes leaders from the food, beverage, heath, technology and marketing sectors.
INDIA & VIETNAM MEET IN NEW DELHI: India and Vietnam have held their first Joint Trade Sub-Commission meeting since 2019. They identified key sectors for trade growth including agriculture, pharmaceuticals and automotive. They also sought to further explore cooperation in services trade.
US FARM GROUP TARGETS ANZAC SHEEP: A US farm lobby group has petitioned US Trade Representative Tai to control lamb and mutton exports from Australia and New Zealand to the US. R-CALF USA claims the lower cost imports from Australia and New Zealand are displacing US production at an alarming pace.
AUSTRALIA & NZ MINISTERS MEET: Trade Ministers Farrell and O’Connor have met for their annual CER Meeting. In a statement they reiterated support to maintaining the CPTPP FTA as a high-quality agreement and looked forward to the signing of an upgraded ASEAN-Australia-NZ trade agreement later this month.
US PRESIDENT SIGNS TAIWAN TRADE LAW: President Biden has signed into law the first agreement reached under the umbrella of the US-Taiwan 21st Century Trade Initiative. He said aspects of the legislation regarding the involvement of Congress in future negotiations would be treated as non-binding.
EU HITS OUT AT CHINA CABLE DUTY DODGE: The European Union has doubled its anti-dumping duties on optical fibre cables from China claiming Chinese exporters had deliberately cut their prices to offset the impact of anti-dumping measures imposed in 2021. The duties will now range from 39.4% to 88%.
