Trade Australia must use the momentum of the TPP to swiftly get on and sign the FTA with China as well.
In a world defined by uncertainty and volatility, the most successful countries and companies are the ones that do not merely adapt to changing times, but transform to keep pace with the challenges and opportunities of the moment - and the ones that lie ahead. With his outstanding work to secure last week's historic agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Trade Minister Andrew Robb has helped give Australia the chance to be one of these success stories.
The TPP is the largest regional free-trade agreement in world history, covering 40 per cent of the global economy. Once adopted, the pact will reduce or eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers between Australia and 11 other nations, including the United States and Japan. It will also amplify the benefits Australia already enjoys as the only leading Western nation to maintain free-trade agreements with Japan and South Korea, among other countries, thereby providing a foundation for renewed investment and future growth throughout the Pacific. 
One thing the TPP will not do is make trade easier with China - one of Australia's most important economic partners - which is not participating in the deal. That is why, as Parliament moves to adopt the TPP, it must also act swiftly to secure the pending free-trade agreement with China - a bilateral accord 10 years in the making.
This agreement would give Australia a meaningful chance to solidify its access to China's growing markets. Just as importantly, it would help strengthen a relationship that is essential today and promises to grow all the more indispensable in the years to come.
Clearly, China is facing volatility as it shifts its economy away from the hazards of commodity exports and towards higher levels of domestic consumption and tradeable value. But when I look across the global landscape, it is just as clear that many of the most significant opportunities are found in China. China's leaders clearly recognise this. President Xi seeks to foster more collaboration - a point he stressed in his public remarks and in our private discussion during his US visit in   September. This creates extraordinary possibilities for Australia.
McKinsey estimates that by 2022, China's middle class will grow to 630 million - 26 times larger than Australia's entire population. China will focus all the more intently in essential areas like healthcare, pensions, and public health hazards like pollution. This will create enormous demand for the knowledge, skills, and ingenuity that Australia is uniquely positioned to deliver.
Already, China and Australia enjoy a trade relationship that benefits both countries. With the agreement before us today, existing handicaps to Australian exports in dairy, wine, financial services, and other industries will be reduced or eliminated. Australian companies will gain greater access to China's growing consumer class.
Even more fundamentally, the agreement can help Australia and China continue their respective transformations as they navigate today's volatile world. As Prime Minister Turnbull has noted, Australia is working to combat increasing volatility by investing in innovation, developing new technologies, and embracing globalised markets.
This bilateral agreement with China - combined with the multilateral TPP - will further strengthen Australia's ability to compete in high-growth markets. But we must ask ourselves what we will be selling into those markets.
As I have seen in other parts of the world, the most effective strategy for sustainable growth is not only to extract and export resources, but to enhance them through value-added manufacturing processes and then sell those higher-value products to other countries. If Australia puts science to work in this way, I have no doubt it can harness the long-term potential of what is buried beneath our feet.
In a time of increasing volatility, the only viable path forward is to develop more initiatives like this - initiatives that drive sustainable growth and leave the old boom-and-bust cycle behind. By working together, company to company and country to country, we can foster innovation ecosystems and harness them to solve any coming challenge. It is therefore imperative that we adopt the TPP without amendment - and enable the trade agreement with China without any further delay.
As an island continent, Australia's separation from the rest of the world has always been physical, not philosophical. Today, by strengthening our bonds with China and other nations throughout the Pacific Rim, we have a meaningful chance to continue our proud tradition of reaching up by reaching out - and grasping the hand that is being offered to us by our closest neighbours.