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Trade and investment

Call for submissions to the Southeast Asia Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) modernisation review

  • Please note: submissions are listed at the bottom of this page. 

The deadline for submissions was 31 December 2025.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade invited submissions from stakeholders (including businesses, peak bodies and member organisations, state and territory governments, non-government organisations, research institutions and the Australian community) on issues relevant to the upgrading and modernisation of our network of FTAs in Southeast Asia.

Through this review, DFAT is looking to identify opportunities for improved utilisation, upgrade and modernisation of Australia's network of FTAs to inform future upgrade negotiations so our free trade agreements support Australia’s trade with Southeast Asian partners out to 2040. Issues include:

  • potential gaps or opportunities for trade in Southeast Asia and areas for improvement
  • barriers to trade that could be addressed through enhancing existing FTAs or establishing new comprehensive agreements
  • overlaps between Australia's bilateral and regional FTAs with Southeast Asian economies, and options to resolve
  • opportunities in specific industries, sectors, goods, services and investment in Southeast Asian economies
  • new and emerging trade issues that could be better reflected in our network of FTAs, such as the green economy, digital economy and sustainable agriculture
  • ways or approaches to FTA disciplines that could increase Australian exports and investment in Southeast Asia and/or make trade easier for Australian businesses.

We sought submissions that covered bilateral agreements including the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), the Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement (MAFTA), the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA), the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA), and the regional or plurilateral agreements including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) and the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA).

We also welcomed views on any potential new FTAs with countries in Southeast Asia.

We were interested in receiving information on changes to exporting, importing or investment situations and/or significant changes to business conditions. We also sought product, service or investment-specific case studies, along with views on the prioritisation of interests to assist the government in determining priorities for future FTA upgrades and modernisation.

All submissions are made publicly available on the DFAT website unless the author specified that all or part of the submission was not to be made available to the public.

Submissions and confidentiality

All submissions are treated as public and may be published on this website unless the author specifically requested that the submission, or part thereof, be handled in-confidence. Unless otherwise requested, DFAT publishes submissions and the name of the submitting organisation or individual on its website. DFAT does not edit submissions prior to publishing. All details that have been included in a submission, including contact information, are available on the DFAT website.

Submitters could request that all, or part, of a submission be treated as confidential. Confidential material needed to be clearly identifiable and be provided in a separate attachment to non-confidential material.
By making a submission, the author(s) agreed to their submission, or part thereof, being used by the Commonwealth of Australia for Commonwealth purposes.

Copyright and content

Copyright in submissions resides with the author(s), not with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The views expressed in these submissions are the views of the author(s) and should not be understood as reflecting the views of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

File format

We asked that submissions be provided in Word or PDF file formats. Where possible, we also encouraged providing submissions in an accessible format. Information on Creating documents that meet accessibility guidelines is available on our website.

Submissions received

The following PDF submissions have been received in response to the review.

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