Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Trade. Could the minister advise the House of the likelihood of a successful outcome to the WTO Doha Round and why this is important to Australia and the global economy?

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. I will deal with the ‘why’ first. Over the last five years without a Doha conclusion the growth in world trade has been twice the rate of growth in world output. The message from that is clear: if we can get growth in world markets, and through the liberalisation of our trade agenda, that will create the environment for sustained economic growth. It is important not only for us but also for the global economy. That is the reason that it is critical that we get a successful outcome in the Doha Round—not just any outcome, but an ambitious one that deals with agriculture, with industrial goods and with services.

As to the likelihood of that outcome, in my judgement, whilst it will be terribly difficult, it is doable. There has developed a new political will—and this was demonstrated at the recent conference of trade ministers in Davos—to achieve a successful and ambitious outcome. This has been backed up in the dynamic of that political will in three new texts that have recently been issued in Geneva dealing with those three areas that I talked of before. But it is one thing to have the text; it is another to maintain the political will to achieve the outcome. I think—and this seemed to be the view of the ministers present—that, at this time of global uncertainty in the world economy, trade ministers can do a great deal by introducing some certainty to that uncertain environment.

Finally, can I just say that, even if we do succeed in Doha, this is really only the beginning of the next set of trade rounds. We on this side of the parliament have always taken the view that what we need to do is get the most ambitious outcome at the multilateral level, to reinforce and enhance that at the regional level and to reinforce it again at the bilateral level. We have never been against bilateral trade arrangements; our criticism of the previous government is that they reversed that order. They put the emphasis on the bilateral rounds and they achieved outcomes that drew away from the multilateral outcome both in resources and in terms of outcome.

It is also our view that the previous government squandered the opportunity presented by our riding the resources boom to sustain our economic future. In terms of their leadership of the Cairns Group, we do not believe they took the opportunity that that structure presented to reach out to the newly emerging groups in this Doha Round. This government will take a new strategic direction and make a new commitment to achieving the outcome at the multilateral level, enhancing it at the regional level and enhancing it again at the bilateral level—WTO-plus. That is what this country needs. But you have to start at the beginning. The previous government never got there. We hope to help turn that around.