自20世紀末期以來，隨著世界經濟區塊化和中國經濟的蓬勃發展，中國已成為澳洲當前最重要的貿易夥伴。在此背景下，澳洲前總理霍華德(John Howard)於2002年5月訪中期間，便主動向中國前總理朱鎔基提出洽簽「澳洲－中國自由貿易協定」(Australia-China Free Trade Agreement, ACFTA)的構想，希望進一步加強兩國之間的經貿聯繫。然而，作為一個中型國家，澳洲的經濟規模遠遜於中國，與中國談判的籌碼並不多。因此，澳洲如何在澳中自貿談判的過程中，為自己創造一些有利的條件，是本文所要探討的重點。

Since the late 20th century, with the rapid regionalization of world economy and economically rising China, China has emerged as Australia’s most important trading partner.? Against this background, former Australian Prime Minister John Howard made a proposal to Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji to sign bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with China in May 2002 while visiting Beijing.? His aim was to further enhance Australia’s economic relations with China.? However, Australia as a middle power has few bargaining chips vis-a-vis China over FTA negations, given that its economic scale is far behind China.?? With the curiosity how Australia can benefit from its FTA negotiations with China and how Canberra can creates favorable terms for itself, the author decides to make on-going Sino-Australian FTA negotiations the primary focuses of this paper.