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Australia-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement Negotiations

Overview

On 7 April 2005, Australia and Malaysia agreed to launch negotiations on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Malaysia is an important economic partner and regional neighbour for Australia. It ranks as our third largest trading partner in ASEAN and our eleventh largest trading partner overall. Two-way trade between our two countries has grown steadily in recent years and in 2006-07 stood at around $11.9 billion.

The decision to begin negotiations on an FTA builds on our already strong and broad-ranging bilateral relationship. It also follows consideration by our respective governments of comprehensive scoping studies into the likely impact of a bilateral economic agreement which suggest that an FTA between Australia and Malaysia will deliver substantial benefits to both countries.

The Australian Scoping Study was conducted in consultation with a wide range of Industry, State and Territory, and non-government groups, and it concluded that an FTA would deliver significant benefits to both countries.

Updates

Scoping Study

Australian Scoping Study: An Australia-Malaysia FTA

Download report in pdf ( 1.8MB)
Download report in MS Word (2.6MB)

The study suggests that an agreement would increase Australia’s GDP by $1.9 billion over the period to 2027. Malaysia’s GDP would increase by RM18.3 billion (around $6.5 billion) over the same period. Malaysia gains more as the economy with higher trade barriers and a higher ratio of trade to GDP.

Submissions

On 19 August 2004, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade invited public submissions and comment on issues relevant to a potential FTA between Australia and Malaysia.  The deadline for receiving submissions was initially Friday 15 October 2004, but this was subsequently extended until December 2004.

Sixty submissions about an Australia-Malaysia FTA were received from industry, professional and non-government bodies, companies, unions and individuals.  Many of these came from peak industry and business organisations, representing the full range of agriculture, services and manufacturing industry sectors.  Below is a list of public submissions received where the organisations have agreed to be listed. 

Some organisations have provided permission for the text of their submissions to be made available on this website.

Public Submissions from organisations that wished to be listed (as received by sector): 

General Business Organisations

Agriculture, Fishing and Processed Food

Mining and Manufacturing

Services, including Education

Unions, NGOs and others

State and Territory Governments

Additional Information

Doing Business in Malaysia

For more information on doing business in Malaysia and about specific export opportunities, go to the Austrade website. As well as country-specific information, the Austrade website also has a database that can be searched by industry.

Contact Us

Asia Trade Task Force:

Email: malaysia.fta@dfat.gov.au
Fax:(02) 6261 2187

Asia Trade Task Force
Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade
RG Casey Building
John McEwen Crescent
BARTON ACT 0221

For media enquiries, please call DFAT's Media Liaison Section: (02) 6261 1555.