Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Labor welcomes the finalisation of the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Trade Facilitation. We believe the trade is critical to Australia's future prosperity. Trade provides new markets and new opportunities for our exporters. It boosts economic growth, it improves competition and it gives our consumers access to a wider range of goods at lower prices. This agreement builds on the work undertaken by the previous Labor government and our commitment to progressing the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round negotiations. We particularly welcome this agreement as the first major agreement concluded since the establishment of the WTO in 1995.

This Agreement on Trade Facilitation we will assist in removing red tape and other regulatory and procedural burdens. It will streamline approvals and transactions for exporters, dismantling some of those barriers that exist behind a country's borders that can be hidden impediments for business. Estimates have previously suggested that this WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement will account for 44 per cent of the total prospective benefits of the Doha Round, with two-thirds of these benefits accruing to developing countries.

The benefits of this agreement to developing countries cannot be underestimated. Trade facilitation reform will boost economic growth and assist in the creation of millions of jobs for our developing country partners. Some of the important reforms contained in this agreement will benefit our exporters, and they include, as the minister said, the harmonisation and streamlining of global customs procedures. This will assist exporters by reducing the number of documents needed to be filled out to move their goods across borders. Also, very importantly, the release of perishable goods will be welcomed by Australian exporters, who often face costly delays on agricultural exports while awaiting clearance on foreign wharves.

The minister noted that this is an agreement that took a long time to negotiate, and he congratulated the officials of the department. I add my congratulations to those officials. I note with disappointment, though, the minister's failure to acknowledge the efforts of previous ministers who laid the groundwork required to deliver this outcome at the WTO's Bali ministerial conference last December. In particular, Labor would place on record the important contribution made by the former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and former trade minister Craig Emerson to the finalisation of this agreement. It was Craig Emerson's articulation of new pathways to the Doha mountaintop which saw WTO members agree to divide up the Doha Round into separate negotiations. Prime Minister Gillard spearheaded this approach through the 2011 meetings of the Commonwealth Heads of Government, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the G20 and the East Asia Summit. The principle was eventually adopted by America, China and the World Trade Organization. It played an important role in reviving the momentum needed to bring this agreement on trade liberalisation to completion.

Labor would also like to acknowledge, as I said earlier, the efforts of officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in concluding this agreement. It would have been a long haul for them, and we appreciate their efforts. We welcome the finalisation of this agreement and will review the treaty through the joint committee process over coming weeks.

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