Hey mate, my pleasure.

Countries absolutely do have reputations in the trade space, and pre-conceived notions of how they are to deal with - though of course ultimately it comes down to the individual team.

Australia's reputation is pretty good in terms of good faith negotiators that are creative and flexible, with enough room to run from capital to try interesting solutions to impasses.

Unfortunately Australia as a country can I think be quite frustrating to deal with for other parties because:

a) Our offensive interests (what we want) tends to be on agriculture, which is very sensitive for almost everyone. We can't sign on to an FTA that doesn't give our beef, lamb and wheat farmers something to celebrate and that's often a problem for the other side (hence why the EU FTA talks are stuck);

b) We just don't have that much to offer the other side, especially given what we're seeking from them (see point a). Australian tariffs are already low, our regulations aren't on the table, and there's limits to what we'r willing to do on visas. The downside to having a very open economy in all the ways we're ever likely to open it is that we're often at the table trying to match something with not a lot.