Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade. Why has the minister, as Chairman of the Cairns Group and one of the six principal negotiators of the current WTO round, decided to cancel his attendance at today’s meeting of APEC trade ministers in Ho Chi Minh City, which will deal with the critical impasse in the current WTO round? Given that the minister has no other compelling trade policy obligations elsewhere today, why has the minister concluded that Australia’s trade interests in a meeting of this importance are best represented instead by the member for Dawson?

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