Hong Kong, Australia conclude Free Trade Agreement negotiations

PORT MORESBY - Hong Kong and Australia today announced today the successful conclusion of negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and an Investment Agreement after reaching consensus on both.

This followed a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC meeting in Port Moresby between Hong Kong's Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Edward Yau, and the Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Simon Birmingham.

Negotiations began in May of last year.

Yau described Hong Kong and Australia as two like-minded economies in pursuit of free trade.

"Australia is a very important trading partner of Hong Kong," he said.

"Hong Kong has set clear objectives in launching the FTA negotiations - to achieve zero tariffs for Hong Kong products to the Australian market and to secure Australia's best FTA commitments for Hong Kong services

"The two agreements encompass trade in goods, trade in services, investment and other related areas, providing us with legal certainty and better access to the Australian market, while also creating business opportunities and further enhancing trade and investment flows between the two places.

"Hong Kong's economy stands to benefit from the two agreements."

 Yau said Hong Kong and Australia expect to sign the FTA and the Investment Agreement in the first half of 2019 after completion of respective internal procedures.
In the past 12 months, Hong Kong has signed three FTAs with 12 economies (the 10 Member States of ASEAN, Georgia and the Macao SAR). It has also concluded negotiations for an FTA with the Maldives.

 In 2017, Australia was Hong Kong's 19th largest trading partner in merchandise trade with total two-way merchandise trade of some HK$54.2 billion. Australia was Hong Kong's seventh largest trading partner in services trade in 2016, withthe total in that year reaching  HK$41.7 billion.

At the end of 2016, Australia ranked sixth among Hong Kong's destinations for outward direct investment, with stock of HK$135.3 billion. It ranked 19th among Hong Kong's sources for inward direct investment, with stock of HK$24.5 billion.  (ATI).