CANCELLED: China-Australia Free Trade Agreement: Partnership for change

This event has been cancelled.

Throughout its year-long G-20 presidency, China highlighted the theme of “inter-connectedness,” calling on countries to deepen ties by investing in infrastructure and liberalizing trade and investment. So far, the initiative has proved easier in word than in deed. Little progress has been made on global trade agreements, or even regional agreements in the Asia Pacific. Meanwhile, various bilateral trade deals have moved ahead, including the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force last December.

On October 20, the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings will host Peter Drysdale and Shiro Armstrong—distinguished economists from Australian National University—to present findings from the newly published “Partnership for Change: Australia–China Joint Economic Report.” Drysdale and Armstrong will assess the free trade agreement’s initial implementation by focusing on several questions: Are the benefits on both sides emerging as expected? How does Australia’s bilateral deal with China affect its potential involvement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (assuming it gets ratified) and East Asia’s Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership? How has Australia promoted these agreements in its domestic politics to avoid the anti-trade sentiment emerging across Europe and the United States? How might the free trade agreement influence Australia’s relationship with China as a whole, and what does the agreement suggest about China’s economic diplomacy moving forward?

Following the presentation by Drysdale and Armstrong, Senior Fellow David Dollar will moderate a discussion and then take questions from the audience.

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