Australia’s Countdown to Free Trade
After declaring the nation “open for business,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has set a target of achieving free trade deals with China, Japan and South Korea within just 12 months. Can the recently elected leader succeed where his predecessors failed? Having stated at the APEC summit in Bali that he wished to swiftly conclude eight years of negotiations with China, Abbott told reporters at last week’s East Asian Summit in Brunei that he was adding the nation’s second and third-biggest trading partners to the target list. “If you don’t set some kind of target, you don’t have the incentive to get things done,” he said . “In the case of the China agreement, that has been meandering along since 2005, so it is very important that we…bring it to a conclusion. “The Japan and Korea free trade agreements (FTAs) have been similarly in train but unresolved…let’s give ourselves 12 months to bring these agreements to a satisfactory conclusion.” Talks on an FTA with China co...