agreements
While discussion of Australia’s Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with various countries usually focuses, for obvious reasons, trade barriers, what is often not widely discussed is the fact that these agreements usually also include provisions for the ‘movement of natural persons’. That is, FTAs (as well as multilateral trade agreements) often include clauses relating to migration. These usually relate to the entry of foreign nationals into Australia as temporary overseas workers, for example on subclass 457 visas. The effect of Australia’s FTAs with Japan, Thailand, Chile, South Korea and New Zealand is that employers wishing to sponsor workers from these countries on 457 visas are exempt from labour market testing requirements which is usually applied to sponsors of temporary overseas workers.
The Minister for Trade has started that the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement will also include commitments on migration policy through ‘Investment Facilitation Agreements’ (IFAs). These are expected to be similar to Enterprise Migration Agreements (EMAs), an existing component of Australia’s migration framework. The Minister stated that ‘all the conditions that were negotiated and put into effect by the Labour Party in the parliament when they were in power are embodied in this Investment Facilitation agreement’. However, EMAs have not yet been used, and there are some differences in the parameters between EMAs and the proposed new IFAs.
The Minister for Trade has started that the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement will also include commitments on migration policy through ‘Investment Facilitation Agreements’ (IFAs). These are expected to be similar to Enterprise Migration Agreements (EMAs), an existing component of Australia’s migration framework. The Minister stated that ‘all the conditions that were negotiated and put into effect by the Labour Party in the parliament when they were in power are embodied in this Investment Facilitation agreement’. However, EMAs have not yet been used, and there are some differences in the parameters between EMAs and the proposed new IFAs.