2016年CRI Nearly one year on, China and Australia laud fruitful Free Trade Agreement（在线收听）

December 20th will mark the one year anniversary since the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, or ChAFTA, took effect. A pre-anniversary ceremony has already been held in Melbourne, with officials from both sides hailing the fruitful results of the deal.

Among them is Cheng Jingye, the Chinese Ambassador to Australia.

"ChAFTA, as we see it, is a comprehensive, high quality free trade agreement of balanced interests for both countries."

China and Australia signed the free trade deal in June 2015, after nearly ten years of negotiation. It took effect in December of last year after being ratified by lawmakers from both sides.

Since then, Australia's health-related exports to China have grown nine-fold. Australian diary and wine exports to China have also surged, making China the largest export market for Australian wines since ChAFTA was launched.

Andrew Robb was Australia's Trade Minister at the time ChAFTA was finalized.

"What has been achieved with ChAFTA is a great step forward and the world is a much better place because of such agreements."

Robb has also taken time to laud China for its commitment in opening up trade.

Danielle Di Pilla is one of those in Australia who is gaining direct benefits from ChAFTA. Di Pilla manages a small pharmaceutical company in Melbourne. It is now pumping out a couple million bars of soap made with goat's milk per month, in order to meet an increasing demand from China.

"The challenge is trying to keep up with the supply. We've doubled our manufacturing. We've doubled everything in trying to keep up with the demand. We wouldn't even know where to start to get your product into China. So I think the cross-border e-commerce platforms like Tmall Global have really allowed small companies like ours to enter China relatively quickly and for relatively small costs as well."

During the Double-11 online shopping day in China, Di Pilla's company sold a million Australian dollars worth of product. Similarly, Chinese-made industrial and daily-use products have also become more affordable in Australia under ChAFTA.

Before the trade deal, Chinese investment in Australia was largely limited to the energy and mining sectors. But now under ChAFTA, Chinese investors are now able to more easily tap into other sectors, including infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture, renewable energy and commercial real estate.