China-Australia economic ties strengthened

ChAFTA seen yielding impressive results so far

Since the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) was signed in 2015, China and Australia have been pursuing further engagement in bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

In 2016, China’s exports to Australia saw steady growth in various sectors such as electronic equipment, machinery, clothing, toys and furniture, the Xinhua News Agency said on Monday.

Over the same period, Australia’s exports to China also saw substantial growth, including red wine, fruit and seafood, the report said.

The total trade volume between China and Australia from January to June this year was $59.65 billion, up by 27.1 percent year-on-year, China’s Ministry of Commerce said Thursday, citing data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

During the same period, Australia’s exports to China were $37.4 billion, an increase of 40.8 percent on a yearly basis, accounting for 33.2 percent of Australia’s total exports. And Australia’s imports from China amounted to $22.25 billion, up 9.3 percent year-on-year, accounting for 22.1 percent of Australia’s total imports.

The two countries may further strengthen economic and trade cooperation in more diversified sectors, Chen Fengying, an expert at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Monday.

“Given the fruitful results we have already seen since ChAFTA was signed, there are no obstacles for the two countries to develop more in-depth cooperation,” Chen said.

“China and Australia are two important countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and besides bilateral cooperation, there is more space to develop in multilateral platforms, such as the Belt and Road (B&R) initiative and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank,” Chen noted.

Chen said Chinese investors would be well advised to invest in tourism and the pension industry in Australia, rather than the real estate sector.

The two countries’ economies can develop further based on their complementarities and the B&R initiative, and they can work on third-party collaboration with other countries, according to Chen.

Australia’s services exports to China are dominated by the tourism sector, which comprises education-related travel at 38 percent and personal travel at 62 percent, said an ANZ Bank report released in June.

The report noted that ChAFTA is a landmark agreement that will define the economic, political and cultural relationship between Australia and China going into the future.