Submission | General Review of AANZFTA 2017

The Australian Chamber views AANZFTA as Australia’s leading Free Trade Agreement and should be held up as the model agreement from which others should be based. It is well accepted and has provided benefits to our members and Australia in general. We appreciate that the General Review is being conducted under a directive of the member Governments, however, we suggest that this review is premature given that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is under negotiation, along with the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership (IA-CEPA) and potentially a revised version of the TransPacific Partnership Agreement (TPP2). Collectively these other agreements cover one or more of the AANZFTA partners and if they enter into force are likely to have profound implications for the continued utilisation of AANZFTA.