Agriculture must be part of China free trade deal: Burke

    A FREE trade agreement between China and Australia has dominated talks attended by Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, in Beijing this week, but he's made it clear agriculture has to be part of the package or else there's no deal at all.
Mr Burke is visiting China and Hong Kong this week to discuss trade, quarantine and forestry issues ahead of a meeting in Italy next week with G8 agriculture and environment ministers.

    Mr Burke yesterday met with the Chinese minister for agriculture and quarantine, with global food shortages and the promotion of Australian wine and food also on the agenda.

    But it was the proposed free trade agreement between the two countries that led the meeting, with Mr Burke saying afterwards he has made it clear any agreement must include agriculture if Australia is to sign up.

    He also reiterated to the Chinese officials that Australia would not agree to any package which offers agriculture less than what is offered to the sector in China's free trade agreement with New Zealand.

    A free trade agreement with China has been on the cards for some years, and shouldn't be expected to be finalised any time soon because of the major differences in population and production between the Australia and this mega-developing nation.

    Mr Burke said China is Australia’s second-largest agricultural trading partner with agriculture, fisheries and forestry exports valued at around $3 billion a year.

    "Australia is a leading exporter of food to the world, so any global strategy to address concerns about global food security depends on our ability to supply food freely," Mr Burke said.

    "Our trade interests are strongly aligned with the solution to global food security.

    "As major agriculture-producing nations, Australia and China have a shared interest in reducing barriers to international trade."

    A free trade agreement with China was the subject of serious scrutiny in the most recent rural and regional affairs Senate Estimates hearings in Canberra in February, where the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries confirmed no work was being done to analyse what impact cheap Chinese imports were having on the Australian farm sector either now, or if and when Australia signed a free trade agreement with China.

    A spokesman for Greens Senator, Christine Milne, said senators were still waiting on detailed responses from the department about and foreseen impacts of an agreement on the farm sector.