About the Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement

The Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement (MAFTA) is a comprehensive, high-quality agreement that further integrates the Australian economy into the fast-growing Indo-Pacific region. The agreement entered into force on 1 January 2013, opening avenues for Australian goods and services into the dynamic Malaysian market.  Since MAFTA’s entry into force, Australia’s total goods and services exports to Malaysia has almost doubled, from $7 billion in 2012 to $13.6 billion in 2023.

MAFTA is one of four FTAs Australian businesses can use to trade with Malaysia. In addition to MAFTA, Malaysia is also a party to the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

• See Outcomes at a Glance for an introduction to MAFTA
• See the full agreement under the Official documents tab
• For information on exporting or importing goods under MAFTA see the guide to Making Use of MAFTA to Export or Import Goods
• For more information see the Guide to the agreement tab
• See the FTA Portal for tariff details on specific products and commitments in relation to services under MAFTA

News

For news on MAFTA and a summary of the agreement’s implementation timeline, visit the MAFTA News page. 

Official documents

The MAFTA package signed on 22 May 2012 consists of:

• Full text of the Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement
  • Schedules of tariff commitments containing tariff reduction and elimination commitments and associated product specific rules
  • Schedules of specific services commitments
  • Schedules of commitments on temporary movement of natural persons
  • Side letters on treatment of Malaysian imports of Australian alcoholic beverages, and addressing environment and labour issues
• An implementing arrangement containing an agreed work program of economic and technical cooperation projects
• A non-legally binding exchange of letters offering to facilitate discussions between Australian and Malaysian traditional and complementary medicine industry bodies.

Malaysia's MAFTA schedule of tariff commitments was finalised using the tariff classification format known as HS 2007, and the tariff schedule annexed to the Agreement is in this format. The Product Specific Rules annexed to the Agreement also use the HS 2007 format. However, both Australia and Malaysia now make use of the updated tariff classification format known as HS 2012 and MAFTA has been implemented by the two Parties using this updated format. Malaysia's MAFTA tariff schedule, and the Product Specific Rules, have therefore been converted by the Parties into the HS 2012 format and are included on this page to assist business in making use of the Agreement (along with the HS 2007 versions attached to the Agreement). As Australia's tariff schedule binds tariffs on all products at tariff-free treatment from entry-into-force of the Agreement, it does not need to make use of the above tariff classification formats to record commitments.

Text of the Agreement

Chapters 1 to 21 of the Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement

Annexes

Annex 1 – Tariff Schedules (HS 2012)

• Schedule of Tariff Commitments – General Notes
• Schedule of Tariff Commitments Malaysia – Headnote HS 2012

• Schedule of Tariff Commitments – Malaysia – Schedule HS 2012 [XLS 2 MB] | [PDF 1 MB]

  Tariff Schedules as at 22 May 2012 (HS 2007)

• Schedule of Tariff Commitments – Malaysia – Headnote HS 2007
• Schedule of Tariff Commitments – Malaysia – Schedule HS 2007 [XLS 2 MB] | [PDF 1.18 MB]

Annex 2 – Product Specific Rules (HS 2012)

• Product Specific Rules – Headnote

• Product Specific Rules – Schedule HS 2012 [XLS 508 KB] | [PDF 1.73 MB]

  Product Specific Rules as at 22 May 2012 (HS 2007)

• Product Specific Rules – Schedule HS 2007 [XLS 503 KB] | [PDF 1.28 MB]

Annex 3 – Schedules of Specific Services Commitments

• Australian Schedule of Specific Services Commitments [PDF 176 KB] | [DOC 306 KB]
• Malaysian Schedule of Specific Services Commitments [PDF 314 KB] | [DOC 515 KB]

Annex 4 – Schedules of Movement of Natural Persons Commitments

• Australian Schedule of Movement of Natural Persons Commitments [PDF 35 KB] | [DOC 58 KB]
• Malaysian Schedule of Movement of Natural Persons Commitments [PDF 314 KB] | [DOC 515 KB]

Side Letters

• Side Letter on Alcoholic Beverages – Australia to Malaysia
• Side Letter on Alcoholic Beverages – Malaysia to Australia
• Side Letter on Environment – Malaysia to Australia
• Side Letter on Environment – Australia to Malaysia
• Side Letter on Labour – Australia to Malaysia
• Side Letter on Labour – Malaysia to Australia

Implementing Arrangement for Economic Cooperation

Economic and Technical Cooperation Implementing Arrangement

Non-Legally Binding Exchange of Letters

• Letter on Traditional and Complementary Medicine – Australia to Malaysia
• Letter on Traditional and Complementary Medicine – Malaysia to Australia

Guide to the agreement

The Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement (MAFTA) benefits Australian exporters, importers and consumers by opening markets and freeing trade and investment between our two countries.

• Fact sheet: MAFTA: the benefits
• Making Use of MAFTA to Export or Import Goods
• Important notice to importers and exporters - Information regarding Declarations of Origin and Certificates of Origin under MAFTA

Chapter summaries

Chapter summaries - an introduction to the text of the agreement

For more information on doing business in Malaysia and about specific export opportunities, see the Austrade website. As well as country-specific information, the Austrade website also has a database that can be searched by industry.

Resources

For MAFTA resources on the negotiation and implementation process please visit the MAFTA resources page.