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Australia will move on China FTA - Trade minister Vaile


1/04/2004 -

Australia would move more quickly to start talks with China for a free trade deal if there was support from the communist nation, Trade Minister Mark Vaile said on Wednesday.

Vaile said locking into the Chinese economy would be a huge boost to Australia, much as the links between Australia and Japan after World War II.

A scoping study is being conducted by the two countries into the possibility of starting a free trade agreement (FTA).

The study is supposed to be finished by October next year.

But there have been growing signs that China wants to push the issue more quickly.

Vaile, who will head to Beijing next month for talks about the economic links between the two nations, said if China wanted to push faster on the FTA, then Australia would oblige.

"If the Chinese government is prepared to move along a little bit faster than so are we," he said at the National Press Club.

"We have at our feet now an opportunity as a nation to resource the industrialisation of China the way we did Japan after the Second World War, and it is an opportunity not to be missed.

"What we are seeing develop commercially in the linkages between Australia and China is, I suppose, an economic manifestation of the strength of the diplomatic relationship that has built up successively over the last 30 years."

He made the comments as the government's FTA study taskforce invited public submissions on the scoping study into the proposed agreement.

In a statement, the taskforce said it would consult widely on the issue, including business, the general public, state and territory governments.

Submissions must be made to the department by June 18.

 



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