FTA Developments

Korean and US Business Leaders To Push For FTA

Business leaders from South Korea and the United States have agreed to make stronger efforts to promote the signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.

According to the business lobby group, officials from both sides of the annual Korea-US Business Council meeting, also decided to form separate working bodies on the trade pact and step up pressure on their respective governments.

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick proposed in June this year to begin talks on an FTA with South Korea.

Australia Signs Free Trade Agreement With Thailand

The deal, which is the first between Thailand and a developed country, was signed by prime ministers Thaksin Shinawatra and John Howardb on 5 July 2004. Tariffs on items such as clothing, textiles, footwear and leather are set to be eliminated after the signing of the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

The agreement comes into force on 1 January next year, and around $700 million worth of Australian exports stand to benefit from immediate tariff cuts. By 2010, 95 per cent of all trade between Australia and Thailand will be tariff free.

Thailand is Australia's 12th-largest export market, taking vehicles, aluminium, cotton, copper, wool and dairy goods, and the 13th-largest source of imports, such as seafood, heating and cooling equipment, computers and crude oil.

The agreement is Australia's second with an ASEAN-member country after it signed a free trade deal with Singapore last year.

United States and Australia Sign Free Trade Agreement

U.S.  and Australia  signed a landmark Free Trade Agreement (FTA)  on 18 May 2004 that will eliminate more than 99 percent of manufactured goods tariffs between the two countries, open services and agricultural markets, and further deepen their already strong economic ties.

The U.S.-Australia FTA is the first FTA between the United States and a developed country since the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement in 1988. Australia is a large and growing trade and investment partner of the United States, and in 2003 was America’s 14th largest export market for goods. Two-way goods and services trade is nearly $29 billion, a 53-percent increase since 1994. Two-way foreign direct investment is about $61 billion. Australia purchases more goods from the United States than they do from any other country, and the United States enjoys a bilateral goods and services trade surplus of $9 billion.

The United States currently has FTAs with Israel, Canada and Mexico (NAFTA), Jordan, Chile and Singapore.

U.S.-Morocco FTA

If the U.S.-Morocco FTA implementing legislation is passed by Congress, it could take effect as early as January 1, 2005. More than 95% of bilateral trade in consumer/industrial products will becomes duty free immediately, with all remaining duties eliminated within nine years.

Under the U.S.-Morocco FTA, textile and apparel trade will be duty-free if imports meet the FTA’s rule of origin, promoting new opportunities for U.S. and Moroccan fiber, yarn, fabric, and apparel manufacturing. In addition, the U.S.-Morocco FTA requires qualifying apparel to contain either U.S. or Moroccan yarn and fabric and contains a temporary 30,000,000 m2 allowance for apparel containing “third country” content.

South Africa Opens Free Trade Area Talks With China

South Africa and China have agreed to open negotiations for a free trade area, which the South African government hopes will regulate the flood of cheap Chinese apparel and textiles into the country. South African officials said they would propose a free trade area that would give preference to local exports to China over Chinese exports to South Africa.

  Back to Index of July 2004