Free trade agreements (FTAs) in Force

The A-UKFTA entered into force on 31 May 2023. The deal provides commercially significant market access and export opportunities for Australian companies with the elimination of tariffs on over 99 per cent of Australian goods exported to the UK and contributes to Australia’s trade diversification agenda.

Outcomes for the agriculture sector include the elimination of tariffs on goods such as wine, rice, honey and nuts and duty-free transitional quotas for key agricultural products including beef, sheep meat, sugar and dairy.

Further information is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

ECTA entered into force on 29 December 2022 securing market access to the most populous country in the world. The fast-growing Indian economy provides trade diversification opportunities for Australian producers and exporters.

The deal provides over 85 per cent of Australian goods exports by value to India with tariff free access, increasing to 90 per cent by 1 January 2026. Key Australian goods that will enter into India duty free include sheep meat, wool, barley, oats and fresh rock lobsters. ECTA also substantially reduces tariffs for key agricultural products such as wine, almonds and lentils.

Further information is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

RCEP came into force on 1 January 2022 and is the world’s largest FTA. It has been ratified by Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Myanmar has signed but not yet ratified the agreement.

RCEP complements and builds upon Australia’s existing FTAs with 14 other Indo-Pacific countries. It introduces a streamlined and simplified set of rules and procedures for accessing preferential tariffs across the region, facilitates greater access to regional value chains, and improves services and investment market access for all RCEP parties.

Further information is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

The PACER Plus came into force on 13 December 2020. PACER Plus is a regional development-centred trade agreement covering a variety of measures including biosecurity, investment and trade in goods and services. It supports development and stability in the Pacific, providing an avenue for increased growth in the region. PACER Plus market access commitments and treaty provisions on goods increase access opportunities and provide greater certainty for producers and exporters in Australia and across the region.

PACER Plus is in force for Australia, Cook Islands, Kiribati, New Zealand, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. It remains open to accession by Nauru which have signed but not ratified, and also remains open for signature by other Pacific Island Countries.

Further information is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

The IA-CEPA came into force on 5 July 2020. Building on the benefits of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area, IA-CEPA provides improved access to Indonesian markets for Australian exporters.

Under IA-CEPA, over 99% of Australia’s exported goods will enter Indonesia either duty free or under significantly improved arrangements, supporting businesses to take advantage of new opportunities to drive growth and jobs.

IA-CEPA also included improved access to the Indonesian market for a range of Australian agricultural products, through reduced tariffs and removing import restrictions for a number of key agricultural exports, including horticulture, livestock, feed wheat/grains, meat, and dairy.

Further information is available on the Export Quotas page or the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

The PAFTA entered into force on 11 February 2020. PAFTA provides preferential access through tariff eliminations and reductions across a wide range of agricultural commodities, including beef, sheep meat, pork, horticulture, seafood and wine. PAFTA also provides Australia with significant preferential quota access into Peru’s highly protected markets for sugar, dairy and grains.

More information on PAFTA is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

The A-HKFTA entered into force on 17 January 2020. The A-HKFTA strengthens Australia’s relations with one of its most significant trade and investment partners. The A-HKFTA provides increased certainty for Australian service providers and investors. It locks in continued access to the Hong Kong Market for Australian exporters of education, financial and professional services, as well as guarantees that Hong Kong will not apply tariffs to Australian goods in the future.

More information on how to make the most out of the A-HKFTA is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

The CPTPP is an FTA between Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam. The agreement was signed by the initial ratifying countries on 8 March 2018 in Santiago, Chile. CPTPP parties have a shared vision of the agreement as a platform that is open to others to join if they are able to meet its high standards.

On 16 July 2023, Ministers responsible for trade from CPTPP Parties and the UK signed the UK’s Accession Protocol to enable the UK to join the CPTPP.

For Australian agriculture, the CPTPP delivers Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement (JAEPA) ‘plus’ outcomes and new high-quality FTAs with Canada and Mexico, two of the world’s top 20 economies.

Further information on the CPTPP is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

The ChAFTA was signed on 17 June 2015 and entered into force on 20 December 2015. The agreement provides significant opportunities for Australia’s agriculture, food, fishery and forestry products by eliminating tariffs on a wide range of our exports including beef, sheep meat, livestock, dairy, wine, seafood, horticulture, hides and skins, barley and sorghum and some other grains.

The full text of ChAFTA and detailed information about the outcomes are publicly available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website. To take full advantage of the agreement, businesses are encouraged to refer to a step by step guide on ChAFTA - Guide to using ChAFTA to export or import.

Further information about tariff reductions under ChAFTA or Australia’s other recent FTAs across multiple products is available at Free Trade Agreement Portal.

For more information on import and export conditions, please see BICON and Micor.

The JAEPA was signed on 8 July 2014 and entered into force on 15 January 2015. The agreement provides valuable preferential access for Australia's agricultural exports by eliminating or significantly reducing tariffs on a wide range of Australian exports including beef, wine, horticulture, seafood, grains and sugar over timeframes of up to 18 years.

JAEPA also includes new quota access for a range of products. See details on quota management arrangements.

To stay up-to-date on the Japanese quotas, interested parties can join the subscription list by emailing Quota Admin with your details and ‘Subscribe’ in the heading.

The full text of JAEPA is publicly available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website. To take full advantage of the agreement, businesses are encouraged to refer to a step by step guide on JAEPA which can be found here—Guide to using JAEPA to export and import goods.

Further information about tariff reductions under JAEPA or Australia’s other recent FTAs across multiple products is available at FTA portal.

The KAFTA was signed on 8 April 2014 and entered into force on 12 December 2014. KAFTA secures improved agriculture market access through elimination of very high tariffs on a wide range of exports including beef, wheat, sugar, dairy, wine, horticulture and seafood.

The full text of KAFTA is publicly available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website. To take full advantage of the agreement, businesses are encouraged to refer to a new step by step guide on KAFTA which can be found here—Guide to using KAFTA to export and import goods.

The MAFTA was signed on 22 May 2012 and entered into force on 1 January 2013. The agreement builds on commitments made by both countries in Australia’s regional FTA with ASEAN and New Zealand (AANZFTA).

MAFTA delivers important improvements to market access for a range of agricultural portfolio industries. These include:

• annual increases in tariff quota volumes for liquid milk at 0 tariff, and liberalisation of the licensing arrangement for imports of liquid milk
• a phased reduction of rice tariffs from 2023, with all rice tariffs fully eliminated by 2026
• tariff elimination by 2016 on certain horticulture products, including melons, mangoes, pineapples and longans
• a commitment from Malaysia to pass on to Australian wine exporters, any reduction or elimination of tariffs, or any treatment in the application of import licensing or other non-tariff measures, that Malaysia provides to wine imports from any other country.

The final text of the agreement is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

The AANZFTA was the first plurilateral FTA that Australia concluded. AANZFTA entered into force on 1 January 2010 for 8 of the 12 signatories (Australia New Zealand, Brunei, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam). This was followed by Thailand in March 2010, Cambodia and Laos in March 2011, and Indonesia in January 2012.

AANZFTA eliminated tariffs on 96% of Australia’s exports to ASEAN nations by 2020 (only 67% of Australia’s exports to the region were tariff-free pre-AANZFTA).

Australia secured a number of tariff reduction and elimination commitments that are of direct benefit for the Australian agriculture sector.

The final text of the agreement and further details on outcomes for Australian agricultural products are available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

The ACLFTA entered into force on 6 March 2009. It was Australia’s first FTA with a Latin American country.

The FTA resulted in the immediate elimination, on entry into force, of Chile’s tariffs for all meat and wine products, as well as on key dairy export lines. All remaining tariffs on both sides were eliminated by year 6 of the agreement (2015) except for one component of Chile’s sugar tariff, which will remain subject to its current ‘price band’ system.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding on Beef Grading, Chile agreed to establish recognition of Australia’s beef grading system. This agreement has provided the Australian red meat industry with significant cost savings when exporting to Chile.

The full text of ACLFTA is publicly available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

The TAFTA entered into force on 1 January 2005. Thailand’s high tariff barriers were either eliminated immediately, have since been phased out, or are being phased out over an agreed timeframe. Tariffs have been eliminated for a range of agricultural commodities, including sheep meat, hides and skins, wool and cotton, most fresh fruit and vegetables and a number of dairy products.

A number of agricultural products are subject to tariff rate quotas (TRQs) or special agricultural safeguards (SSGs) under TAFTA. These TRQs and SSGs are being progressively phased out and include products such as mandarins and fresh grapes, which phased to 0% in 2015 with full tariff and quota elimination in 2016, and some cheese as well as beef and beef offal, which phased to 0% in 2020 with tariff and quota elimination in 2021.

The final text of the agreement is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website and includes further information regarding tariff rate quotas, SSGs and SSG quotas.

The AUSFTA came into force on 1 January 2005.

AUSFTA delivers greater market access opportunities for Australian business with the elimination of duties on over 97% of US tariff lines for non-agricultural exports, and 66% of agriculture tariff lines from day 1 of the agreement, including lamb, sheep meat and horticulture products. A further 9% of agriculture tariffs were eliminated from 2008. Remaining tariffs will continue to fall and duty free quotas continue to increase, including for key Australian agricultural exports such as beef and dairy.

AUSFTA also provides improved access conditions for a range of other agricultural products exported to the US, including cotton seeds, wool, sheep meat, seafood, wheat gluten, cereals, processed food and forest products.

The full text of AUSFTA is publicly available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

The SAFTA was signed on 17 February 2003 and entered into force on 28 July 2003. SAFTA eliminated tariffs on all goods from entry into force of the agreement and precludes the use of export subsidies and the application of safeguard measures against each other.

The final text of the agreement is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

The ANZCERTA came into effect on 1 January 1983 and is central to the Australia-New Zealand trade and economic relationship. ANZCERTA is one of the worlds’ most open and successful free trade agreements.

As well as underpinning bilateral trade in goods and services, ANZCERTA is the umbrella for close collaboration across biosecurity, customs, transport, regulatory and product standards and business law issues. ANZCERTA does not affect Australia or New Zealand’s ability to impose biosecurity measures to protect animal, plant and human health.

The final text of the agreement is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.