经历了数十年的谈判，习近平主席与托尼•阿博特总理最终确认实质性结束这场具有历史意义的澳中之间的自由贸易协定。澳洲农业特别是乳制品行业将从中受益匪浅。
贸易与投资部部长罗伯（Andrew Robb）和中国商务部部长高虎城昨天签署了一份有关准备在2015年用双语正式签署自由贸易协定法律文件的意向声明。
本文将为您简述该自由贸易协定中将与澳洲乳业有关并且较为重要的内容。
联邦贸易部长罗伯将自由贸易协定描述为‘乳制品交易’。一个不容忽视的现实是作为该协议的一个重要部分，澳洲乳制品行业每年对澳洲经济的贡献多达130澳元， 将会是该框架协议一旦签订后受益最多的产业，正如中国在2008年与新西兰达成的自由贸易协定那样。
“澳洲农业将从中受益良多，”阿博特总理说道，“我们的农业至少能像新西兰在六七年前那样受益，那时他们对中国的乳业出口从不到5亿元上涨到了超过30亿元。”
目前乳制品行业附加的关税为10%到20%，这在未来的十年内逐步取消，未来4年内婴儿配方奶粉的15%的关税也会逐步取消。
非常重要的一点是许多澳洲乳制品将不用再受制于限制性的保障措施，而目前新西兰对中国出口的乳制品仍受这项措施的制约、即一旦优惠配额达到规定数量，超出部分仍仍需加上关税。澳洲乳制品中唯一会受到该制约的就是全脂奶粉。
澳洲议会秘书长弗莱登伯格（Josh Frydenberg）之前表示自由贸易协定在未来几年内对澳洲经济的价值将达到180亿澳元，并且澳洲95%的出口产品将免关税进入中国市场。随着澳中之间贸易的繁荣，目前政府认为180亿澳元将是个保守估计。
随着自由贸易协定的签署，以下为您总结各类将被逐渐取消的关税：
需要注意的是虽然自由贸易协定为中国投资者提供了利用澳洲资产与项目的便利条件（中国的私营企业接受澳洲外国投资审查委员会审查的门槛金额从2.48亿澳元提高到10.08亿澳元），为了与澳洲和新西兰、日本、韩国及美国的自由贸易协定保持一致，价值超过1500万澳元的农业用地将会面临外商投资审查，对农业企业超过5300万澳元的投资及所有外国国企的投资也将受到该审核。
作者： Jeremy Loeliger （豪力墨尔本合伙人）
电话: +61 (0)3 9321 9888
Australian dairy at the core of landmark Australia-China free trade agreement
After a decade of negotiations, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Tony Abbott have concluded negotiations for a historical free trade agreement (FTA) between China and Australia, with the Australian agriculture, and in particular the dairy sector, set to benefit strongly.
Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb and Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng signed a Declaration of Intent in respect of the FTA yesterday, undertaking to prepare the legal texts in both languages for official signing in 2015.
This article provides a summary of the provisions of the FTA that will be of particular application or importance to the Australian dairy industry.
Federal Trade Minister Andrew Robb has described the FTA as "the dairy deal"; an acknowledgement of the fact that the Australian dairy sector, which is worth about $13 billion per annum to the national economy, is at the core of the agreement, which will outline a deal which most regard as a superior outcome to that secured by New Zealand in its 2008 free trade agreement with China.
"This is better for Australian agriculture," Prime Minister Abbott said, "it's at least as good for our agriculture as New Zealand got about six or seven years ago - and their dairy exports to China have gone up from under half a billion to over three billion."
The 10% to 20% tariffs currently applied across the dairy sector will be phased out over the next decade, with the 15% tariff on infant formula to be phased out over four years.
Importantly, most Australian dairy products will not be subjected to the protective safeguards which currently apply to New Zealand dairy exports to China. The New Zealand safeguards provide that once a quota is reached, tariffs once again apply. The only Australian dairy product that the safeguards will apply to is whole milk powder.
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Josh Frydenberg, previously said the FTA will be worth up to $18 billion to the Australian economy over the next few years and “up to 95 per cent of our exports over time will enter the Chinese market tariff free”. As trade has blossomed between Australia and China, the Government now believes $18 billion is a conservative estimate.
A summary of the phasing out of tariffs under the FTA is set out below:
Although all FTAs are ‘living’ documents, it is important to note that, while the FTA generally provides Chinese investors with greater access to Australian assets and projects (whereby private Chinese investors will have the standard foreign investment review threshold increased from $248 million to $1.087 billion, in line with Australia's free trade agreements with New Zealand, Japan, Korea and the United States, agricultural land over $15 million will face foreign investment review scrutiny, as will agribusinesses over $53 million and all investment proposals by state owned enterprises.
Authors: Jeremy Loeliger (Holding Redlich Melbourne Partners) and Benjamin Hunt
Phone: +61 (0)3 9321 9888
email: [email protected]
