Australia and China are getting very close to signing a landmark free trade agreement (FTA), according to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.  Proponents of such a deal say lower tariffs in China would open up lucrative markets in the professional services sector.

But Australian manufacturers worry about what will happen when the door swings the other way.  Any FTA would allow China to flood the land with cheaply made items with prices that undercut domestic goods. 

“It’s looking very positive, and (Trade Minister) Andrew Robb assures me that the areas of negotiation have narrowed significantly, so we are quite optimistic, but there’s not an agreement until everything’s agreed,” Bishop said in an interview with Fairfax Media.  Both Fairfax and The Australian reported that negotiations were going so well, that an FTA deal could be signed as early as next Monday in Canberra, after this weekend’s G20 summit. Robb says the Australian and Chinese delegations are down to just two sticking points, although he’s not revealing what they might be.

“There are only two actually but I’m not going to get into those because I think it’s quite unproductive to have a negotiation in public,” Robb told reporters in Beijing.