australia-china free trade agreement conference brian pilbeam, pr

9proposes that the scope of a FTA include a ‘Statement of Principles of Best PracticeRegulation’, to which both countries would subscribe.This would set in place the guidelines for a workable path to harmonisation. It would provide forbilateral arrangements, under which stretch targets could be set for us to work towards thisobjective. That is particularly important from Telstra’s position.At the government level, the agreement should incorporate the WTO rules to create a flexiblemechanism for ministers to meet regularly to canvass common issues.But let’s also look creatively at some of the ways we could approach this. On our doorstep, wecan draw on the example of the Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations agreement.Here we have the most comprehensive, effective and mutually compatible free tradeagreement in the world and one of the most successful examples of economic integration.The CER agreement is a role model that goes beyond the standard FTA concept, providing aforum for debate and allowing interchanges between the Australian Consumer and CompetitionCouncil and the New Zealand Commerce Commission.Significant advantage could be gained by developing a similar partnership with China’s StateCouncil for Information or the MII.Additionally, benefit could be gained as China prepares to become a more customer-focusedtrading nation in encouraging the Australian Telecommunications Users’ Group or itsinternational counterpart, INTUG, to create a better understanding among the Chinese carriersas to what standards customers expect in a global world.There is already a model on which this could be based. A body structured on these lines existsin Hong Kong, one of the world’s major global business regimes.5. ConclusionSumming up, Telstra is keen to work with both Governments to achieve telecommunicationscomponent in an FTA on China. We believe the agreement could yield enormous economic