China, Australia ink 2 key business deals; cement trade ties

In yet another push for the use of Chinese currency in international transactions, China today inked two key business deals with Australia, cementing its strategic and trade ties with the resource-rich country.
The signing of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Yuan clearing service (RMB clearing service) coincided with the visit of President Xi Jinping to Canberra. Once the FTA comes into effect, the two nations will grant the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to each other.
"The conclusion of bilateral FTA talks is a big event worth celebrating in our economic and trade relations," Xi told Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott today.

"The two sides have taken a pragmatic attitude to address the concerns of each other, and the FTA demonstrates a balance of interests and is a high-quality, high-level deal," Xi said.
Abbott said the completion of negotiations is very exciting and displays the extensiveness and strong momentum of bilateral cooperation.
Following a nine year long talks, China and Australia signed a Declaration of Intent on FTA under which Australia will eventually remove tariffs on all goods imported from China, and a vast majority of Australian products will enter China tariff-free.

Under the RMB clearing service, China will set up a clearing bank in Sydney to handle transactions denominated in RMB, also known as Chinese yuan, according to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the two countries' central banks the People's Bank of China and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

They will greatly lower the review thresholds for corporate investment, and increase market access opportunities, predictability and transparency for such investment.
The two sides also committed themselves to opening up numerous service sectors to each other with high quality, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.