Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warmly welcomed China’s Vice-President Xi Jinping to Canberra as he spoke of the booming economic ties with Australia’s biggest trading partner. Mr Xi, who is tipped to succeed President Hu Jintao within two years, is the first high-level Chinese official to visit Australia since the jailing of Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu in Shanghai in March.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Xi’s visit was a signal that the Australia-China relationship had matured to the point where problems could be worked through. He also mentioned that “some of the difficulties and tensions that we had last year really are now behind us and we’re both taking a long term view of the relationship”.

Australia and China had agreed in April 2005 to begin negotiations for a free trade pact and have had 14 rounds of talks since. The next round is scheduled to be held in Beijing by the end of this month.

Sources:
Australia, China sign major deals, push free trade [AFP, 21 June 2010]
Australia, China sign $12b worth of deals [TODAY Online, 22 June 2010]

“We are going to be discussing this with South Korea. I want to get the deal done,” Obama was quoted as telling Fox News, when asked if he thinks the South Korea-U.S. FTA would be passed in Congress.

“The question is whether we can get it done in the beginning of2010, whether we can get it done at the end of 2010. There’s still some details that need to be worked out,” Obama said, adding that he thinks it is a potential good deal for U.S. exporters.

However, he also expressed concerns on the deal, saying “there’s certain sectors of the economy that aren’t dealt with as effectively and that’s something that I’m going to be talking to President Lee (Myung-bak) about.”

Although Obama did not elaborate, it seemed Obama referred to an imbalance in auto trade and restricted shipments of U.S. beef, South Korean news channel YTN said.

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Source: Xinhua, “Obama expresses hope to hasten S. Korea-U.S. FTA ratification: media,” November 19, 2009, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/19/content_12490789.htm