On April 25, Vice Minister Sun Yibiao met with Mr. Michael Outram, Deputy Commissioner of the Australian Border Force in Beijing.

Vice Minister Sun spoke highly of China-Australia relations and the role of China-Australia Free Trade Agreement in promoting bilateral trade, made a brief review of the progress that both customs have made in the cooperation of risk management, enforcement and intelligence exchange, trade facilitation, etc., and put forward four proposals on furthering cooperation. Firstly, both sides should sign the 2016 Arrangement of Strategic Partnership Program as soon as possible, so as to consolidate the strategic partnership between both agencies. Secondly, the two sides should promote cooperation under the existing mechanisms, such as to restart the attachment program of risk management experts and further deepen the data exchange cooperation; to continuously make good use of the “three-country, four-party” mechanism to enhance intelligence and data exchange, so as to curb the smuggling of drugs and cigarettes; to strengthen technical exchanges and cooperation in breeding and training detector dogs; and to keep on negotiations on the AEO mutual recognition. Thirdly, the two parties should discuss the establishment of a regional customs cooperation mechanism, in order to have more direct dialogues and communication between both regional branches. Fourthly, both sides should push forward coordination and cooperation under the multilateral mechanisms, such as WCO, APEC and ASEM.

Deputy Commissioner Outram agreed with those proposals and hoped to proceed the signature of the 2016 Arrangement as soon as possible, and to continue the practical cooperation in all areas between both sides.