Australia’s trade minister expects to reach a free-trade agreement with China before a rival pact championed by the US is concluded, giving Beijing a head-start in the race to cement economic ties with the resource-rich nation.
Andrew Robb said in Beijing that a Sino-Australian Free Trade Agreement would be ready by the end of this year, while political hurdles in the US meant that Washington’s Trans Pacific Partnership initiative would not be completed until the first half of 2015.
US President Barack Obama said last week that he hoped the TPP could be finalised at this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, which Beijing will host in November.
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