UNCLASSIFIED

FOI Reference: LEX1059

Dear Mr H

Re: Freedom of Information (FOI) Request

Thank you for your e-mail dated 11 December 2019 in which you seek access
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 to:

“I would like to request the full document of the China–Australia Free
Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) containing signatures of all parties.

This e-mail sets out some information about how your request will be
processed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Searches are now being undertaken in relevant areas of the Department for
documents relevant to your request.

Scope of request:

If it emerges that the scope of your request is unclear or is too large
for processing, the Department will contact you to discuss re-scoping the
request.

Timeframe for receiving our decision:

We received your request on 11 December 2019 and the 30-day statutory
period for processing your request commenced from the day after that date;
our decision would be due on 10 January 2020.  Due to the significant loss
of working days over the forthcoming Christmas/New Year period we would be
most grateful if you could confirm by return e-mail your agreement to a
30-day extension of the statutory processing time.  The revised due date
would be 10 February 2020.  Should you agree to this extension, we will
inform the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).Please
provide your response by COB 20 December 2019.

The statutory period for processing your request may be extended in
certain circumstances.  We will advise you if any further extension of
time is required.

Charges:

Please note that the Department issues charges for processing FOI
requests.  We will advise you of these charges when we are in a position
to estimate the resources required to process your request.

Timing of release:

As the subject matter of your request will require DFAT to upload any
documents released to you to the Department’s FOI Disclosure Log, we take
this opportunity to advise you that the Department’s policy is to upload
documents to the disclosure log on the same day as the documents are
released to you.

Exclusion of officials’ names and contact details:

It is the Department’s policy to withhold the mobile numbers of all
government officials, and the names and contact details of government
officials not in the Senior Executive Service (SES) or equivalent.  If you
require the mobile numbers of all government officials, or the names and
contact details of non-SES officials, please let us know at
[1][DFAT request email] so the decision-maker may consider; otherwise we will
take it that you agree to that information being excluded from the scope
of your request.

Personal Information:

If we need to consult with other people or organisations regarding your
FOI request, we may need to disclose your personal information (e.g. your
name).  When we consult it may be apparent that you have made a request,
even if we do not disclose your identity.  Please let us know if you have
any concerns in this regard.  The Department’s privacy policy is available
at [2]dfat.gov.au/privacy.html.

Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to
contact us by return e-mail at [3][DFAT request email]

Yours sincerely

[4]cid:image001.png@01D349A2.74F24380

DFAT FOI Team

Freedom of Information and Privacy Law Section
Legal Division | Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
[5]DFAT.GOV.AU | [6]Twitter | [7]Facebook | [8]Flickr | [9]YouTube

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UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr H

Thank you for agreeing to the requested extension of time.

We wish to advise you that a copy of the China-Australia Free Trade
Agreement (ChAFTA) can be found here:
[1]https://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/in-...

We kindly ask that you consider whether this document will satisfy the
scope of your request and if it will kindly withdraw your request.

In the event that you wish to proceed with your request, noting that the
ChAFTA is publically available, the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade may issue charges to you. If applied, processing charges will be not
insignificant noting the length of the treaty and the manual
photocopying/scanning that will be required to provide you with access to
the document.

In the event that you wish to proceed with this request, we would
appreciate that you confirm the following:

1)       Whether you wish to receive both the Chinese and Australian text
of the ChAFTA; and

2)      Whether you would like to narrow the scope of your request to just
the signature pages.

We kindly ask that you respond to this email by COB 20 December 2019.

Yours sincerely

DFAT FOI Team

[2]cid:image001.png@01D349A2.74F24380

DFAT FOI Team

Freedom of Information and Privacy Law Section
Legal Division | Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
[3]DFAT.GOV.AU | [4]Twitter | [5]Facebook | [6]Flickr | [7]YouTube

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UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Chris H

Please find attached the charges letter in your matter.

Please note that we have issued charges on the basis that you have sought
access to what is largely a publicly available document, noting that all
that is not available publicly is the signature pages for the document. On
18 December 2020, we sent you a link to that publicly available version.

You have specifically requested a copy of the ChAFTA containing
signatures. The Department does not hold an electronic version of the
ChAFTA with all signatures, but does hold a hard copy which is bound and
comprises 2,300 pages. This version includes the signature pages for the
ChAFTA. To provide you with a full copy, the department would be required
to unbind and manually photocopy the full manuscript. The charges for
processing your request reflect this.

In the alternative, you may wish to consider whether just receiving the
final signature pages of the ChAFTA would satisfy your request.

[1]cid:image001.png@01D349A2.74F24380

DFAT FOI Team

Freedom of Information and Privacy Law Section
Legal Division | Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
[2]DFAT.GOV.AU | [3]Twitter | [4]Facebook | [5]Flickr | [6]YouTube

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