AGRICULTURE – AUSTRALIA

Stakes high as China FTA cut-off looms

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Original article by Lisa Murray
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 28-Aug-15

Trade Minister Andrew Robb says he and his Chinese counterpart are racing to ratify the free trade agreement (FTA) by December 2015. Robb said he was reassuring Beijing following opposition to the FTA from Australian trade unions and the Australian Labor Party. The starting point is crucial, according to the National Farmers Federation, because the first year of tariff cuts is worth $A300 million to the agriculture industry.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE, CHINA. MINISTRY OF COMMERCE. DEPT OF FOREIGN TRADE, NATIONAL FARMERS’ FEDERATION LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, FERGUSON AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Young Australians expect ‘high dollars’

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Original article by Julie-anne Sprague
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 19-Aug-15

Bannister Downs Dairy MD Sue Daubney believes young Australians have unrealistic expectations about work and salaries. She told a Committee for the Economic Development of Australia luncheon in Perth on 18 August 2015 that the company had to use foreign labour because young Australians did not want to work in agriculture. In her view, Australia’s workforce culture is problematic.

CORPORATES
COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF AUSTRALIA, BANNISTER DOWNS DAIRY COMPANY

Boom times for West’s grain farmers

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Original article by Julie-Anne Sprague
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 29-Jan-15

A grain harvest in 2013-14 of an all-time high 15.9 million tonnes in Western Australia (WA) is being followed by one of 13.5 million tonnes in 2014-15. The good conditions have lifted the incomes of farmers in the Wheatbelt region of the state, who are now servicing their bank debts, acquiring neighbouring properties or investing in new machinery. The producers are also benefiting from the recent drop in the Australian dollar exchange rate, which helps cushion the 12% decline in wheat prices on export markets. The healthy picture is in contrast to that for WA’s iron ore sector, as the mining boom ends

CORPORATES
THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN FARMERS FEDERATION (INCORPORATED), CBH LIMITED, CO-OPERATIVE BULK HANDLING LIMITED, FARMERS CENTRE (KATANNING) PTY LTD

China pact sees miners duck tariffs

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Original article by Sid Maher, Scott Murdoch
The Australian – Page: 5 : 22-Oct-14

The Chinese Government recently declared new tariffs of 3% and 6% on imports of metallurgical and thermal coal respectively. However, Australian producers will be spared the measure, as Trade Minister Andrew Robb has negotiated a zero tariff in the talks on a new free-trade agreement between the two nations. Meanwhile Prime Minister Tony Abbott is being criticised by some of his Coalition MPs over failing to roll out a promised tightening of foreign investment limits in the agricultural sector

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIA. FOREIGN INVESTMENT REVIEW BOARD, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, GROUP OF TWENTY (G-20), WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION, ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION, CHINA. MINISTRY OF FINANCE