From participating in these dialogues my sense is that we are making progress and David Gruen in his remarks has outlined some of the examples. More businesses are genuinely interested in exploring the advantages of having trade invoiced in RMB. The financial infrastructure that supports this trading is gradually being put in place. And some of the stumbling blocks and misperceptions are being eroded.
There is, though, much further to travel on this journey. Currently, less than 1 per cent of Australia’s merchandise trade with China is invoiced in RMB. For China, around 12 per cent of total merchandise trade in 2013 was invoiced in RMB, although we estimate the number was around 3 to 5 per cent if trade with Hong Kong is excluded.