Following are the key documents that led to the establishment of AANZFTA (Note: Downloadable PDF Files).

• The Framework for the AFTA-CER Closer Economic Partnership (2001)
• Ministerial Declaration on the AFTA-CER Closer Economic Partnership (2002)
• Joint Declaration of the Leaders at the ASEAN-Australia and New Zealand Commemorative Summit (2004)

The Negotiations

Negotiations for the AANZFTA commenced in March 2005 following the Joint Declaration of the Leaders at the ASEAN-Australia and New Zealand Commemorative Summit in Vientiane, Lao PDR on 30 November 2004.

The AANZFTA was negotiated by the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Trade Negotiating Committee (AANZTNC) supported by technical experts, particularly in the areas of: trade in services (including experts on financial services); investment; rules of origin; sanitary and phytosanitary measures; standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment; customs procedures; intellectual property rights; competition; economic cooperation; and legal and institutional issues.

Schedules of specific commitments on trade in goods, trade in services, and movement of natural persons were negotiated bilaterally between ASEAN Member States and Australia and New Zealand. Notwithstanding the bilateral nature of negotiating the schedules, Australia and New Zealand each had a set of schedules applied to all the ASEAN Member States.

The legal text of the Agreement was finalized in August 2008.

Visit the AGREEMENT page.