This a landmark deal for trade in our region. Australian businesses and farmers will now have more opportunities to export their food, fibre and services to more customers, more easily.
More trade means more export opportunities for local businesses, and more Australian jobs.
Overnight, 11 countries - Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam - reached agreement on the final Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at an officials-level meeting in Tokyo, Japan.
It is expected the agreement will be signed in March in Chile.
This is a multi-billion-dollar win for Australian jobs. Australian workers, businesses, farmers and consumers will benefit.
The Government took a leadership role and worked hard to deliver the TPP because it will generate more Australian exports and create new Australian jobs.
The TPP will eliminate more than 98 per cent of tariffs in a trade zone with a combined GDP of $13.7 trillion. The agreement will deliver 18 new free trade agreements between the TPP parties. For Australia that means new trade agreements with Canada and Mexico and greater market access to Japan, Chile, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.
In 2016-17, nearly one quarter of Australia’s total exports, worth nearly $88 billion, went to TPP countries. This will continue to grow thanks to the significant increase in market access the TPP gives Australian exporters.
Significant wins for Australian exporters under the TPP include:
- Accelerated reductions in Japan’s import tariffs on beef, where Australian exports were worth $2 billion in 2015-16 - under TPP-11 even better access.
- Elimination of a range of cheese tariffs into Japan covering more than $100 million of trade that was not covered by the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement.
- New quotas for wheat and rice to Japan, and for sugar into Japan, Canada and Mexico.
- Elimination of all tariffs on sheep meat, cotton, wool, seafood, horticulture, wine and industrial products (manufactured goods).
- Eleven separate deals - legally enforceable market access to all these countries.
- Investment sets up strong legally enforceable commitments on the way countries regulate foreign investment.
Labor and Bill Shorten declared this trade agreement dead - they urged the Government to walk away. If Labor got their way, Bill Shorten would have shut Australia out of this historic agreement and denied our farmers, manufacturers, services providers and consumers the big wins the TPP delivers.
Unlike Labor, the Government will never give up on measures that create jobs for Australians.
The text of the agreement is now undergoing a legal review and translation and will be made public on a date to be agreed by all parties.