BEIJING, Aug 24: Three days of talks on a proposed Australian-Chinese free trade agreement ended on Wednesday with both sides expressing satisfaction with the negotiations and agreeing to continue discussions in October.

“Both sides expressed satisfaction over the results of the consultations,” China’s ministry of commerce said in a statement.

Both sides “felt that this round of consultations was helpful to understanding the other sides’ trading system and helped create conditions for substantive negotiations in the future,” the statement said.

The talks were held between Ric Wells, a senior Australian trade official, and Zhang Xiangchen, vice director of the ministry’s world trade department.

A third round of talks would be held at the end of October or early November, but it was not immediately clear where the round would be held, an Australian diplomat told AFP.

Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile last week said the free trade agreement was a “once in a lifetime opportunity” for his country and could boost the Australian economy by some $20 billion annually.

The two governments agreed to begin the free trade talks during a meeting in Beijing in April between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Since then Australia and China have agreed to establish four working groups for the negotiations covering agriculture, trade in goods, trade in services, investment and other trade facilitation issues.—AFP