FTA with Australia by next year
The Star | October 7, 2008
FTA with Australia by next year
By TEH ENG HOCK
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia and Australia hope to conclude free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations by 2009, said International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He said he expected an agreement to be reached “sooner rather than later.”
“We are having (another) meeting next month. Hopefully it will be soon, with the year 2009 having been mentioned,” he said.
Muhyiddin said Australia was Malaysia’s 11th largest trading partner, with total trade in 2007 valued at RM30.6bil, with exports at RM20.4bil and imports at RM10.2bil.
Last year, investments from Australia amounted to RM1.7bil while Malaysian investments in Australia were worth RM318mil, he told reporters after attending a Malaysia-Australia joint trade committee (JTC) meeting, also attended by his Australian counterpart Simon Crean.
Some of the issues raised included the need for Australia to address unfair trade practices by several Australian states that discriminated against tropical timber, cooperation programmes by the Customs authorities, and promotion of halal (kosher) products and services.
Crean said this was the fourth JTC meeting in five months, which underlined the significance of the trade and bilateral relationship between Australia and Malaysia.
To date, the JTC had met 14 times.
In a joint statement, both ministers said they looked forward to signing the Asean-Australia-New Zealand FTA at the upcoming Asean Summit in December, and its subsequent implementation in 2009.
