Japan and Australia have agreed on a free-trade deal after overcoming differences on autos and agriculture.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, yesterday announced the pact at a news conference.
The deal calls for Japan to gradually phase out its nearly 40 percent tariffs on Australian exports of beef. In turn, Australia is to end its tariffs on Japanese-made vehicles.
Photo: AFP
“I hope that thanks to this agreement that Australia can be pivotal in assuring Japan’s energy security, its resource security and its food security,”’ Abbott told reporters.
Abbott, who led his conservative coalition to power in elections in September last year, is leading a mission of hundreds of people to East Asia, seeking to deepen economic ties.
In Abe, a fellow conservative, Abbott found an ally eager to strengthen diplomatic and defense ties.
Abe, making a point of referring to Abbott by his first name, said he believed the summit would lead to a “new relationship” with Australia, a fellow ally of the US
Talks on the trade pact took seven years. Japan has balked at allowing foreign competition in farm products.
The “basic agreement” reached by Abe and Abbott yesterday calls for the current 38.5 percent tariff on beef from Australia to drop to 23.5 percent for chilled beef within 15 years. The tariff rate for frozen beef will fall to 19.5 percent within 18 years.
The agreement also sets limits on the amount of beef that can be imported.
Nevertheless, Abbott described the deal as a “historic” one.
“This agreement is good for Australia, good for Japan, good for the region and good for the world,” he said.
After China, Japan is Australia’s second-biggest trading partner, importing more than two-thirds of the beef it exports.
Both sides see significant potential for growth in trade and officials say Australians can expect access to less expensive Japanese products thanks to the agreement.
“We asked so many times for this,’’ Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Akio Mimura said. “This will be the last time.”
Despite the tariffs it imposes on farm imports, Japan buys more from Australia than it exports, mainly due to its purchases of energy and other resources.
Among the business leaders visiting Japan with Abbott were finance, gambling and mining industry executives.
During his visit to Seoul, Abbott will finalize a free-trade agreement reached earlier between Australia and South Korea.
Countries around the Pacific’s rim buy 77 percent of Australia’s exports, and seven of its top 10 export markets are in Asia.
Abbott earlier yesterday said he is determined to end Australia’s “Eurocentric” bias. Australia’s exports of iron ore and other resources have played a crucial role in its own affluence and the economic rise of Japan, China and other Asian economies, he said.
There was a time when some organizations in Australia banned Toyota cars from their parking lots, due to animosity that lingered from World War II, Abbott said.
Meanwhile, the US and Japan yesterday held talks in Tokyo on a trans-Pacific trade agreement.
Australia is also a part of those talks, where progress appears to have stalled, at least partly due to disputes over US-Japan trade in cars and farm products.
Japanese officials said before Abbott’s visit that whaling would not be on the agenda in Tokyo.
Last week, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s annual hunt in the Antarctic was not for scientific purposes, as Tokyo had claimed, and ordered it halted.
Australia, which brought the case in 2010, praised the judgement.
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