Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade. Would the Deputy Prime Minister outline to the House how the government is working for a successful conclusion to the current round of global trade talks? How will the new global trade deal help Australia’s exporters?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Cowper for his question and recognise his keen interest in improving the opportunities for Australian exporters across the world through the multilateral trade negotiations called the Doha Round. Of course, the member for Cowper has many industries in his area, manufacturing industries as well as agricultural industries, that want better access into global markets. That is what the Australian government is looking for in seeking an ambitious outcome to this round of negotiations. It is our No. 1 trade priority and has been for a number of years.

This round was launched in 2001, there have been a series of meetings and it is fast reaching a point in time where it must be concluded. There is only one way that it is going to be concluded successfully and to the satisfaction of Australian exporters, and that is if the major players and those countries that have got a contribution to make begin to make the political commitment that needs to be made now so that we can progress.

Last week whilst overseas I chaired a meeting of key trade ministers, including those from the European Union and the United States, who are core to this negotiation, to set up a roadmap, if you like, through June and July. By the end of June we need to have achieved the modalities for agricultural market access and non-agricultural market access to be able to achieve our deadlines this year. It is now time those major players closely engaged so they can scope up the sorts of levels of commitment and compromise that are going to be needed to see this deal done. As I indicated, this round is our No. 1 trade policy priority. A successful outcome to this round would mean hundreds of billions of dollars of improved global welfare that Australia could participate in. It is incredibly important for our agricultural industries and obviously Australia’s farmers to get better access to markets, particularly those in the European Union.

We as a government have consistently over the years improved the circumstances in Australia for our exporters. We removed about $3½ billion worth of wholesale sales tax off the back of our exports and we have improved the economic environment in which they are operating in Australia to put them on a stronger platform to launch into markets across the world. This is an opportunity to remove on a multilateral basis many of those barriers in many of those markets across the world. Australia is playing a key role in these negotiations. We call on our major colleagues now to make the political commitment in the coming months to achieve the goals not just for our exporters and our economies but also to help lift millions of people out of poverty in the developing world. Success will create more opportunities for Australian exporters to help them create more jobs in their industries and ultimately to put more dollars into the pockets of working Australian families.