Minister Han Changfu meets his Australia counterpart Joyce
DATE:2014-09-22 SOURCE:Information Office, MOA
Minister Han Changfu met with Hon. Barnaby Joyce, Minister for Agriculture of Australia, in Beijing on Sept. 17, 2014. The two sides exchanged views on boosting China-Australia agricultural cooperation. The Australian Minister is on a visit to China to attend the Third APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security.
At the meeting, Minister Han noted that China and Australia enjoy sound agricultural cooperation mechanisms, expanding areas of cooperation and stable growth in agricultural trade. Remarkable achievements have been made in bilateral agricultural cooperation.
Minister Han put forward a four-point proposal for future cooperation:
Firstly, to further bilateral agricultural cooperation under the framework of China-Australia Agricultural Cooperation Agreement;
Secondly, to increase mutual understanding of reality and concerns in agricultural sectors for new progress in China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations in a down-to-earth manner;
Thirdly, to boost two-way investment and technical cooperation in agriculture based on the Joint Study on Australia-China Investment and Technological Cooperation in Agriculture; and
Fourthly, to intensify cooperation in agriculture and food security under the framework of APEC with the aim to promote regional food security.
In response, Joyce stressed that China is the biggest market for Australian agricultural produce, and the two countries are highly complementary in agriculture. The export of Australian agricultural produce to China will not hit China''s relevant sectors.
Joyce expressed his support to Minister Han's proposal, hoping to build consensus on agriculture-related issues in FTA negotiations. He welcomed Chinese enterprises to invest in agriculture in Australia to deepen bilateral cooperation.
Bi Meijia, Chief Economist and Director-General of the General Office of MOA, also attended the meeting.
