ChAFTA set for brighter next chapter

Australia's landmark free trade agreement with China has reaped significant rewards in the decade since it was signed, proving wrong initial skepticism and becoming a bright spot amid challenges to the global economy, analysts and stakeholders said.

"There were lots of different people who had a passion, who had a vision, and they wanted to make it happen," said Andrew Robb, who, as Australia's trade and investment minister, signed the agreement with then-Chinese commerce minister Gao Hucheng in Canberra in June 2015.

"They saw the benefit of two countries coming together in a more meaningful and powerful way, and we ended up with it all happening," Robb said in a speech at an industry event in Sydney in late May to mark the 10th anniversary of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, or ChAFTA.

The agreement and its results confirm that free trade works for the benefit of all, but there are still threats of de-globalization and protectionism coming from other parts of the world today, Robb said.

Australia's trade with China since ChAFTA has grown from A$144.8 billion ($93.4 billion) to A$325.5 billion, a 124.8 percent increase, compared with 76.5 percent growth with the rest of the world, according to an April report by the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, that assessed the free trade agreement a decade on.

The Chinese market "has outperformed the rest of the world across both exports and imports and almost all broad categories of goods and services", the report added.

"The overall assessment is that ChAFTA has been overwhelmingly in Australia's national interest," James Laurenceson, director of the institute and author of the report, told China Daily.