11/07/2017 (Weekly Times Now) - Free-trade agreements are on the fast track, with aims to seal an Australia-Indonesia deal by the end of the year.

And negotiations on an agreement with the European Union could also speed up, with hopes it could be secured in 2019 — a target Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described as “realistic but ambitious”.

Mr Turnbull and Indonesian President Joko Widodo reaffirmed their commitment to this year finalising the Indonesian Australian Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, during a side meeting at the G20 summit in Germany last week.

Negotiations on the long-stalled deal resumed last year, with headway already made on two crucial commodities, sugar and beef.

Indonesia agreed earlier this year to lower its tariffs on Australian sugar to 5 per cent, and to increase the maximum weight for feeder cattle imported from Australia.

President Widodo has previously indicated, however, that Indonesia would be looking to remove tariffs on palm oil and paper.

Mr Turnbull stressed the commitment that a deal would be done by year’s end as “a great development”.

Labor’s energy spokesman Mark Butler warned against putting an “unrealistic expectation on how quickly a complex trade deal” could be reached.