Australian manufacturers are set to benefit from a reported 20 deals that have been signed as a result of prime minister Tony Abbott’s recent Australian trade promotional visit to China.
The deals consisted of 13 commercial agreements, and another seven agreements which are ‘significant’ in nature. Victorian dairy company, Pactum Dairy Group was one of the success stories of the trip, signing a contract to supply 25 million liters of milk annually to Bright Dairy of China, the Weekly Times reports.
Trade minister Andrew Robb said that the Australian trade promotion – which took around 600 Australian companies to Shanghai and other regional cities – has provided a solid platform for Australian manufacturers to develop strong business relationships.
“Even more importantly, there are also the intangibles,” said Robb. “We built trust. We built relationships.
“And undoubtedly we built momentum in the free-trade negotiations — both by showing the strong commercial ties between our countries and the political will for an agreement.”
According to an analysis by Austrade, the combined commercial value of the 20 agreements is estimated to be worth $894m, with an additional $57m generated in separate agreements which encourages Chinese investment in Australian companies.