Australian trade minister Andrew Robb and Chinese commerce minister Gao Huchen have signed the Australia-China free trade agreement (ChAFTA) in Canberra on 17 June.
Under the deal, that 85 per cent of Australian exports to China will be tariff-free, rising to 95 per cent with the FTA is fully implemented.
Negotiations for ChAFTA have been ongoing for the past ten years, with Australia’s trade with China, its largest trading partner, worth almost A$160bn in 2013/14.
The trade deal with China follows Australia’s recent FTAs with major export markets Japan and South Korea, with Australian prime minister Tony Abbott saying it was a “historic trifecta of trade agreements”.
