While much focus has been centred on the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory takeover saga, one rarely discussed player in the battle for its control may be quietly seeking bids of its own. According to The Australian, Japan’s Kirin Holdings could be looking to offload the dairy division of its National Foods business. The news follows...

The trade deal signed yesterday between Australia and South Korea is being promoted as a win by the government for the benefits if will bring to Australian industries including agriculture, automotive, services, resources and energy, and manufactured products. South Korea is Australia’s third largest export market and fourth largest...

On 16 October 2013, Treasurer Joe Hockey stated in a speech to the American Australian Association that “Australia is open for business, open for investment and is going for growth”1. Just over a month since making that bold statement, the Treasurer has created uncertainty over Australia’s foreign investment policy...

Kingho, one of China’s largest private mining companies, has announced an all-cash tilt at the cash-strapped mining junior Carabella Resources, which has coal assets throughout Queensland. Though the deal is only valued at $66 million, a pittance in the world of mega-mining transactions, the Chinese suitor is expected to...

Australia and South Korea have signed a bilateral trade agreement – commonly called a Free Trade Agreement. Meat exporters and agricultural producers have the most to gain from the new free trade agreement between South Korea and Australia, but the federal government has foreshadowed pain for auto manufacturing. The...

Hockey’s GrainCorp decision opens competition can of worms When Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey quashed the acquisition of GrainCorp by Archer Daniels Midland on national interest grounds, his stated reasons were based on competition. Despite it being five years since the single desk for wheat exports was abolished, according to...

Foreign investment and the popularity test: does GrainCorp set a new precedent? At any other time, Friday’s decision by treasurer Joe Hockey to reject Archer Daniels Midland’s (ADM) A$3.4 billion takeover bid for GrainCorp might have been just another controversial foreign investment decision. Indeed, were it not for a...

Australian trade with Indonesia: what’s really at stake? Indonesia has a population ten times as big as that of Australia, but its per capita income is only one-tenth of Australia’s, so what’s really at risk if the trade relationship between the two countries breaks down? The recent spat over...

Australian espionage and the history of foreign intervention in Indonesia Indonesia’s response to the spying imbroglio last week – when president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recalled his ambassador and suspended security co-operation with Australia – reflects a political history of constant foreign intervention in Indonesian affairs that few Australians are...

China is willing to complete a free trade agreement with Australia as soon as possible, China’s Ministry of Commerce has said at a ministry press conference this week. “Both sides have relatively large differences in investment, agriculture and services, but have been trying to find ways to move the...