FTA boost for beef and dairy, but others must wait

THE Australia-China free trade agreement is expected to give a billion-dollar boost to beef exports.

Beef and dairy are the big winners in the FTA.

THE Australia-China free trade agreement is expected to give a ­billion-dollar boost to beef exports and place Australian dairy exports on an equal footing with New ­Zealand.

But the sugar industry, rice ­exporters, and wheat and cotton producers will have to wait at least three years for any good news.

Under the deal to be signed today by Tony Abbott and Chinese President Xi Jinping, China will not grant any further access to these markets for Australian ­exporters. But the deal includes a review mechanism in three years where sugar, rice, wheat and cotton will be revisited.

The Australian understands the deal will put the dairy industry on broadly the same tariff reduction trajectory as New Zealand, which has dramatically increased its exports to China since it signed an FTA in 2008. However, sources say other elements of the dairy deal will enable the government to argue that Australia has struck a better deal than New Zealand.

Tariffs on beef and sheep meat of up to 25 per cent will be phased down over time.

The deal is expected to provide a boost to beef exports. This will add to growth that saw exports grow from $12 million to $722m in the decade to 2013.

Wool quotas for Australian producers will also be increased and tariffs on wine will be phased out. Horticulture, which has grown from $13m in exports to China in 2008 to $83m, is shaping up as a big winner under the deal.

Macadamia nuts, walnuts and pistachios, which now face tariffs of 10-25 per cent, will have their tariffs eliminated in four years.

Avocadoes, mangoes, peaches, apricots, apples, pears, grapes and melons are understood to have received the same deal.

The Chinese government is understood to be reluctant to open up the sugar industry because many poor growers in China’s south rely on the commodity