MSIA & AUSTRALIA SET TO CONCLUDE FTA DEAL

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (Bernama) -- Malaysia and Australia hope to conclude the free trade agreement (FTA) between both countries within a "reasonable time-frame," says International Trade and Industry Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

"It could be in 2009 and both sides have agreed that we should work towards
the conclusion of the deal as soon as possible," he told reporters after the
14th Australia-Malaysia Joint Trade Committee (JTC) meeting, here
Tuesday.

He said that officials from both countries would meet here next month on
the FTA negotiations.

The Malaysia-Australia FTA (MAFTA) talks, which began in July 2005, was
earlier expected to be concluded in 2007. However, certain sensitive
issues have caused a delay.

Australia's Minister of Trade, Simon Crean said that one issue was related
to the pending finalisation of the Doha round.

Crean was attending the JTC meeting in conjunction with his first visit to
Malaysia as trade minister.

Crean said he believed that Australia and Malaysia can work together as
both countries have strong complementarities in economies and many sectors with
solid commercial exchange such as the services sector.

Both countries would co-host a series of roundtables with business to
promote trade in services.

He also said that the country hoped the outcome of the recently concluded
Asean-Australia-New Zealand FTA (AANZFTA) will further improve access to the
Malaysian market for Australian companies.

"Malaysia-Australia FTA should be an AANZFTA-plus agreement," he
added.

With total two-way trade in 2007 coming to US$12.8 billion, Malaysia is
Australia's third largest trading partner in Asean and eleventh largest trading
partner overall.