Australia secures free trade deal with Hong Kong

Isabelle Meere, Advisory Associate

Australia signed a free trade deal and an associated investment agreement with Hong Kong today, after negotiations were launched in May 2017.

The Hong Kong-Australia Free Trade Agreement ensures the continued implementation of Hong Kong’s zero-tariff regime, removes non-tariff barriers to trade is goods and covers 140 service sectors which will now see more favourable market access. Australia will also liberalise the full range of its arbitration, conciliation and mediation services and certain rail transport services.

Progressive rules on data flows and data storage are included in the agreement, as the nations agreed to free cross-border data flows without mandatory local data storage requirements. This will facilitate trade – especially e-commerce – and provide certainty to investors on both sides.

Australia now has free trade agreements with seven of its top eight export markets and a number of other Asian states. This includes the the recently concluded free trade deal with its neighbour Indonesia – which when ratified will cover two-way trade worth AUS$16.8 billion – as well as agreements with Singapore, Thailand, ASEAN, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and China.

Australia has also agreed but not yet ratified the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations Plus, which is a regional trade agreement with New Zealand and nine Pacific Island States. The only prospective FTA under consideration is with the United Kingdom, however prospects for negotiations to progress will be heavily dependent on the progress of Brexit, which is proving increasingly difficult to predict.

Australia’s push to conclude free trade deals with its biggest trading partners and regional exports markets represents it efforts to secure long-term strategic interests and certainty for Australian goods and services