The Business Council of Australia welcomes the opportunity to input into the Southeast Asia Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) modernisation review being conducted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
At a time of global economic uncertainty, the need to recommit to Australia’s leadership role as an open trading country and a reliable trade partner has never been greater.
Australia enjoys a strong network of bilateral, regional, and multilateral FTAs with Southeast Asian trading partners which have reduced barriers to trade. But significant barriers to greater trade and investment persist with several Southeast Asian economies.
This submission outlines that it is essential to better utilise Australia’s network of FTAs with Southeast Asian partners and continually seek to reduce trade barriers. This includes ensuring Australia’s FTAs keep pace with third country agreements and modernising existing agreements to cover increasingly important areas such as digital trade, technology cooperation, standards and the green economy.
- Recommendation 1: Negotiate upgrades to existing bilateral FTAs with Southeast Asian
partners to increase liberalisation in priority sectors and reduce non-tariff barriers. - Recommendation 2: Enhance existing agreements with Southeast Asian partners with a
greater focus on economic cooperation beyond tariff reductions, including digital trade,
innovation, investment, technology cooperation, standards and the green economy. - Recommendation 3: Commission feasibility studies for new bilateral FTAs with Vietnam and
The Philippines, notwithstanding existing multilateral FTAs.