U.S.-Australia free trade agreement takes effect

U.S.-Australia free trade agreement takes effect    The U.S.-Australia free trade agreement became effective on Jan. 1.
   This agreement is the U.S. government’s first with an industrialized country since the 1988 U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement.
   More than 99 percent of the U.S. manufactured goods exports to Australia have immediately become duty free. According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, manufactured goods account for 93 percent of U.S. exports to Australia.
   “This is the most significant cut in industrial tariffs ever achieved in a U.S. free trade agreement, and manufacturers are the big winners,” said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick in Jan. 1 statement.
   Two-way annual goods and services trade between the countries is about $29 billion, a 53-percent increase since 1994. Australia buys more goods from the United States than from any other country, and the United States enjoys a bilateral goods and services trade surplus of $9 billion.