About free trade agreements (FTAs)
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is seeking input on your experiences using the FTA Portal. This will help us assess options for future potential enhancements.
Access the FTA Portal survey.
Introduction
Designed in 2015 and launched in March 2016, the FTA Portal is DFAT’s online tool to help traders get the maximum benefit from Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). The Portal provides FTA and related information to users via an online interface for all of Australia’s 16 in-force FTAs, as well as for FTAs signed but not yet in force, to help traders prepare for their entry into force.
The Portal automatically scans hundreds of thousands of pages of source material to show the relevant tariff and market access commitments that apply to the user’s product or service, thus reducing the time needed to research available options and helping to equip businesses to make informed decisions.
The FTA Portal currently attracts between 2,000 to 3,000 users every week. The key users, located in Australia and overseas, include potential and existing exporters and importers; customs brokers and freight forwarders; industry peak bodies; business advisors, services exporters and other trade facilitators.
Seeking your views
DFAT is looking at options to modernise the Portal’s current functionality and is seeking views on possible new and innovative features to enhance the user experience and help businesses find and use the best FTA for their situation.
To inform our approach to possible future enhancements, we want to hear from you on your experience using the FTA Portal, what you find useful, and what additional functions could improve business knowledge and utilisation of our FTAs.
In particular, we would welcome your input on:
- whether the FTA Portal sufficiently answered your query
- whether you used the FTA Portal as your primary source of information or if you supplemented it with other research or tools to answer your trade query, and if so, what there were
- the aspects of the FTA Portal you found most useful
- where you heard about the FTA Portal
- any improvements that could be made to the FTA Portal to make it more effective in helping SMEs
- any improvements that could be made to the type or presentation of information on the FTA Portal
- the information you searched for on the FTA Portal and why
- any other matter you wish to raise in relation to the FTA Portal and accessing the benefits of FTAs.