Wine one of sectors to most benefit from Austalia's free trade agreements, according to economist
An economist has claimed that free trade agreements produce mixed results for Australian agricultural products, though wine is one sector which has particularly benefited from FTA’s.
Dr Krishna Prasad Timsina a post-doctoral fellow attached to Charles Stuart University has shown that FTA’s are positive for the export trade in Australian agriproducts, which should continue in the future if new agreements are concluded.
“In recent years, international trade in wine and sugar have particularly benefited from negotiated agreements,” said Dr Timsina. “However, the degrees of impact of current FTAs vary for different agricultural commodoties over time, so we need to revisit and plan periodically based on insights from existing FTAs."
Australia currently has 11 FTAs in force which cover two thirds of total international trade.
These findings were important, according to Dr Richard Culas, a senior researcher and lecturer with Charles Stuart’s School of Agriculture and Wine Sciences as recent Australian governments have planned to increase the number of FTAs being negotiated in the future.
"FTAs play a significant role in the process of economic development in a trading country,” said Dr Culas, who is also a researcher with the Charles Stuart Institute for Land, Water and Society. “These findings have implications for future international trade agreements, which flow on to the prosperity of regional Australia as well as the national economy.”
The study looked at Australia’s trade with China, USA and the European Union between 2008 and 2018 and analysed the impact of Australia’s FTAs on agricultural versus non-agricultural trade, as well as for certain commodities such as wine, sugar, beef, edible fruits and nuts, and wheat.
“The study found the Australia’s FTAs has more impact on the agricultural sector than the non-agricultural sector in recent years, particularly those involving China, Japan and Korea,” Dr Timsina said.