Bracks predicts car tariffs to drop (AAP)

Australia's tariffs on imported cars will fall to "almost nothing" in the near future, federal Automotive Review head Steve Bracks believes. The former Victorian premier told the Melbourne Institute Economics Forum on Monday that he expected Australia would reduce its car tariffs from 10 per cent to five per cent in 2010, as his August report recommended. He said other zero tariff agreements already in place, in conjunction with a five per cent general tariff, would drastically reduce the total level of protection for the car market. "If you take into account free trade agreements that we have in which there's no tariffs, the US and Thailand, ... New Zealand , the tariffs will be eventually about three to four per cent, so it's almost nothing and it won't be an issue," he told AAP. "I think the issue about tariffs are an... [read full story]