Negotiating trade and investment agreements
Productivity Commission submission
2 October 2023
Modern trade and investment agreements are far broader and more comprehensive than what is needed for Australian exports of goods, services and investment to access foreign markets.
Coupled with the breadth of the issues included, modern 'trade agreement’ look much more like ‘broad cooperation’ agreements, in which countries commit to solving a broad range of problems bilaterally or in small or more extended groups.
In this submission, the Commission argues among other things that broad and active consultation is required for agreements contribute to community-wide wellbeing and avoid being biased toward sectoral interests.
The Commission provided the submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth inquiry on 22 September 2023 and it was published on the Commission's website on 2 October 2023.
Download the submission
- Submission to the Inquiry into the Australian Government's approach to negotiating trade and investment agreements (PDF - 590 KB)
- Submission to the Inquiry into the Australian Government's approach to negotiating trade and investment agreements (Word - 3.5 MB)
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