Title: Are free trade agreements making Swiss cheese of Australia's foreign investment regime?

Authors: Shiro Armstrong; Sam Reinhardt; Tom Westland

Addresses: East Asian Bureau of Economic Research, Crawford School of Public Policy, 132 Lennox Crossing, Acton ACT 0200, Australia ' East Asian Bureau of Economic Research, Crawford School of Public Policy, 132 Lennox Crossing, Acton ACT 0200, Australia ' East Asian Bureau of Economic Research, Crawford School of Public Policy, 132 Lennox Crossing, Acton ACT 0200, Australia

Abstract: Until 2005, Australia's foreign investment regime treated all investment sources on a non-discriminatory basis but since then some important preferential exemptions to screening have been introduced. Bilateral deals with the USA and New Zealand more than quadrupled the threshold to A$1.078 billion for investments that must be screened by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB). This represents a major liberalisation towards investment from those countries, given that a vast majority of investment is below the A$1 billion threshold. Some new rules regarding investment have also been introduced in those bilateral agreements which only apply to the signatories of those deals. The piecemeal changes to the foreign investment regime through bilateral trade and economic agreements have occurred without a clear strategy set forth and further piecemeal changes threaten to impact the operation and function of the regime with implications for confidence in Australia maintaining an open investment environment.

Keywords: investment policy; Australian investment regime; free trade agreements; preferential trade agreements; state-owned enterprises; SOEs; Chinese overseas investment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPP.2017.086046

International Journal of Public Policy, 2017 Vol.13 No.3/4/5, pp.290 - 303

Received: 22 Aug 2015
Accepted: 31 Jan 2016
Published online: 22 Aug 2017 *

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