KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 — The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) expects Malaysia-Australia trade to improve further with the introduction of the Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement (MAFTA) tariff finder.
Secretary-General Datuk Dr Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria said the tariff finder was a practical tool that would support the development of businesses between Malaysian and Australian companies.
“Trade between Malaysia and Australia is growing and this is a way to facilitate trade growth,” she told reporters after the launch of the tariff finder here today.
At the launch was Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia Miles Kupa.
Sta Maria said since MAFTA came into force on January 1 this year, it had eliminated or significantly reduced tariffs for Australian products to Malaysia.
However, she said, because the remaining tariffs differed between products, the difficult part had been working out exactly what tariff applied to each other.
The tariff finder was a valuable initiative in helping the business community in finding the tariff rate.
Sta Maria said that as the remaining tariffs were reduced over time, the tariff finder would be updated accordingly.
As of 2012, Malaysia was Australia’s 10th largest partner with total trade of US$14.7 billion (RM47.5 billion).
Since MAFTA came into force, Malaysia has eliminated tariffs on 97.6 per cent of goods imported from Australia. This will rise to 99 per cent in 2017. — Bernama
