And another FTA – Hong Kong
Vernon Small reports on the conclusion of a free trade agreement with Hong Kong. So it got me thinking what are the countries we have an FTA wth, or are negotiating. The answers are:
- Australia, since 1983
- Singapore since 2001
- Thailand since 2005
- Trans-Pacific (Brunei/Chile/Singapore) since 2005
- China since 2008
- ASEAN (Brunei/Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam)
- Malaysia
- Gulf Co-operation Council (Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar)
- Hong Kong
- Korea
Now who are our biggest trading partners:
- Australia $18.7b – in force
- USA $9.0b – zip
- China $8.9b – in force
- Japan $7.6b – some momentum
- Singapore – $3.1b – in force
- Germany – $3.0b – zip
- Malaysia $2.9b – finalised
- UK $2.8b – zip
- Korea $2.7b – under negotiation
Also the total value of trade with ASEAN is $12.2b and GCC $4.3b.
So while progress on Doha remains stalled, we’re doing pretty well. The big gaps are USA, Japan and the EU. The EU are hopeless. Japan is showing some signs of life and in a very welcome move, President Obama a few minutes ago said the United States would seek to join the Trans-Pac agreement.
I’m delighted his protectionist election rhetoric, may have been just that – rhetoric. I started writing this blog post unaware of Obama’s announcement – how is that for good timing!