Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth, I present the committee's report entitled Final report:inquiry into the understanding and utilisation of benefits under free trade agreements.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—It's quite fitting that you're in the chair, Deputy Speaker Buchholz, as you are the deputy chair of the trade committee as well. I'd like to acknowledge you and Andrew Bray, our committee secretariat, for the work that you both contributed to the report.

Australia is a highly successful trading nation with a strong commitment to very open international trade.

Open trade and investment flows have enormous benefits for Australia including increased economic growth and jobs creation, improved productivity and greater economic resilience, as well as reduced costs of living and higher living standards for all Australians. Over several decades, our nation, Australia, has built an extensive architecture of trade and investment agreements with 30 partner economies, fostering increased trade flows and deeper trading relationships, as well as closer diplomatic ties. These agreements reduce barriers to trade and they're absolutely essential to providing access to export markets in which Australian goods and services can be sold, as well as enabling access to imported goods and services at lower costs for both producers and consumers.

Many Australian industries and businesses have been highly successful in engaging in international trade even without the benefit of an FTA. In my own electorate in South Australia I know of two businesses that are doing incredible work, one, San Remo, by exporting pasta to Italy, and the other, Omega Foods, by exporting olive oil to Greece, believe it or not. This is through their own connections and knowing the culture, language et cetera. There are a lot of small businesses that use their own contacts to enable them to set up their own agreements with different countries overseas.

For some sectors such as agriculture, trade underpins the viability of many businesses, as well as that of the communities in which those businesses are located and the livelihoods of individuals. While Australia has been remarkably effective in reshaping the benefits of trade, there remains considerable untapped potential for further gains. If we are to maximise the economic and social benefits of trade for all Australians, we must ensure that more Australian businesses and communities are able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by free trade agreements around the world.

In undertaking its inquiry, the committee sought to understand the challenges that Australian businesses face in accessing the benefits of trade and how they can be encouraged and supported to participate further. The committee was particularly interested in the challenges faced by small to medium-sized enterprises, First Nations businesses and the diaspora communities in benefitting from trade. These groups have potential for much greater trade engagement, where the gains can have the most significant impact.

The committee's report makes 13 recommendations that it believes will contribute to reducing barriers to participation and to better equipping Australian businesses to engage with trade opportunities, including by publishing more information and data on the update and utilisation of trade agreements; developing a strategy to build the awareness of and capacity for Australian businesses to engage with trade and trade agreements, including through collaboration with industry bodies; accelerating initiatives to streamline requirements and processes involved in accessing trade agreements, particularly those relating to laws of origin and certificates of origin; creating a strategy for enhanced targeted education and outreach programs among groups such as small and medium-sized enterprises, First Nations and diaspora communities; supporting research to better understand how and to what extent different participants in the economy engage with and benefit from free trade agreements; and providing communications material and trade facilitation initiatives in non-English languages to more effectively engage with those local diaspora communities.

Often trade opportunities are stifled by challenges outside what we may think of as traditional trade barriers, such as tariffs, for example. The committee heard about the experience of Seven Seasons, an Australian spirits distillery which is owned by an Indigenous family and works with Aboriginal harvesters on Larrakia contrary in the Northern Territory. This is a great example of innovation in trade that is harnessing some of the oldest traditional knowledge of Indigenous people to provide a unique product into global markets. One of their award-winning products is a gin which content green ants. However, despite keen interest in this product globally, their efforts to export the product have been hampered by non-tariff barriers such as biosecurity requirements in the US, classification requirements in the UK and a definite answer on how to classify the product yet to be provided by China.

The committee heard of other issues arising as a result of the unfamiliarity of Australian native food and botanical products. Due to these and other examples, the committee recommended that the government continue to work proactively with industry to identify and resolve non-tariff barriers to trade, including advocating for greater standards harmonisation.

In recent years several factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a general rise in protectionist sentiment, as we've seen in the last few weeks, have combined to bring profound changes to the global economy. In just the past few months, the global trade environment has become considerably more uncertain.

As a nation that benefits immensely from open trade, this poses a significant challenge for Australia. There can be no doubt that an increase in trade barriers and the reversal of the decades-long progress made towards trade liberalisation is a risk to Australia's ongoing economic prosperity and the livelihoods of many Australians.

The Australian government must continue to closely monitor global developments for their impact on Australia. We must seek to mitigate such impacts by further strengthening relationships with our trusted trading partners while also seeking additional trade opportunities in emerging areas of economic activity and in new markets.

Now more than ever we must also actively foster a stronger understanding amongst the Australian public of the value of trade to the Australian economy, to businesses and to individuals.

Lastly, amid increasing uncertainty Australia must take every opportunity to continue to strongly emphasise the mutual benefits of the global rules-based trading system and multilateral approach to international trade.

In closing, I'd like to thank all the businesses that gave evidence and attended the committee inquiry, the industry bodies, the many government agencies that spoke to us, the community groups, the academics and the individuals that provided written submissions and appeared at public hearings throughout the inquiry. I'd also like to thank you, Deputy Speaker Buchholz, the member for Wright, in your role as deputy chair of the committee; the other members of the committee; and, of course, the secretariat: Mr Andrew Bray, who is here in the chamber, Adrian Daniel, Mia Oberin and April Stephenson for their tremendous work and support of the committee.

I commend the report to the House.