The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARES) has released a paper exploring how Australia’s agricultural export performance over the past 15 years has been linked to the increasingly large number of free trade agreements (FTAs).
ABARES said the paper, Stocktake of Free trade, competitiveness and a global world: How trade agreements are shaping agriculture, looked at the history of Australia’s FTAs and how they assisted with the country’s export competitiveness and the growth of agricultural exports.
Head of Agricultural Forecasting and Trade at ABARES, Jared Greenville said 81 per cent of Australian agricultural exports were now destined for countries with which Australia had a preferential trade agreement.
“The importance of FTAs to Australia’s agricultural export performance cannot be overstated,” Dr Greenville said.
“The value of our agricultural exports to countries with which we have an FTA is estimated to be about $39 billion in 2019/2020,” he said.
“Over the past 15 years they have provided access to new and growing markets and have supported the competitiveness of our products abroad.”
Dr Greenville said there were only a few major trading partners that remained with which Australia didn’t have a preferential trade agreement in place.
“These include the European Union, the United Kingdom and India,” he said.
“Negotiations with these trading partners are underway and the pursuit of FTAs with new partners will remain of key importance to Australia’s future trade agenda.”
Dr Greenville said the ABARES paper noted that Australia was now among the top 15 agricultural exporters in the world, with the sector exporting about 70 per cent of production to 192 countries.
The 12-page paper can be accessed at this PS News link.
