The United States and Australia on Sunday reached agreement on a new bilateral free trade deal, ending months of negotiations.
The pact will eliminate duties on more than 99% of US manufacturing exports to Australia, and 97% of Australian exports to the United States.
Although concern has been expressed over the omission of concessions for Australian sugar farmers, Australian Prime Minister, John Howard explained that the issue had been sacrificed in the interests of reaching agreement on the wider deal.
"I came to the conclusion that it would have been against the national interest to give up a deal that is going to be of enormous benefit to the rest of the economy because we couldn't get something on sugar," he told the Australian media.
US Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick welcomed the conclusion of negotiations, heralding the deal as "the most significant immediate cut in industrial tariffs ever achieved in a US free-trade agreement".
The pact needs to be approved by the US Congress before it can come into force.
.
Network Tweets
Network BlogsContent
provided by
|
Archive | Resources | Partners | Site Map | Links | Newsletter Archive | Contact | RSS Feeds | About | Syndication | Advertising & Marketing | Recruitment | Terms & Conditions | Privacy
Copyright © 2012 - All Rights Reserved - Tax-News.com
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Tax-News.com has taken reasonable care in sourcing and presenting the information contained on this site, but accepts no responsibility for any financial or other loss or damage that may result from its use. In particular, users of the site are advised to take appropriate professional advice before committing themselves to involvement in offshore jurisdictions, offshore trusts or offshore investments.
Write a comment