News Stories - 30 Aug 07
ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand have reconfirmed their commitment to concluding an FTA
ASEAN Economic Ministers and CER Trade Ministers agreed in Manila last week to aim to conclude substantive negotiations for the ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand FTA (AANZFTA) by May 2008.
We welcome ASEAN’s commitment to completing the AANZFTA. The FTA is a priority for Australia, as ASEAN is one of Australia’s largest trading partners.
Good progress has been made in the negotiations, but considerable work is still required to achieve a comprehensive, quality agreement by mid-2008.
We would expect a substantial goods package, commercially meaningful WTO-plus commitments in services and investment, and appropriate coverage of other important trade-related issues (such as intellectual property and competition policy).
Australia has a high level of ambition.
- AANZFTA has to go beyond the WTO if it is to be worthwhile.
- We do not want AANZFTA falling behind other FTAs.
A good-quality FTA outcome would be taken seriously by the business community and influence industry decision-making, thereby serving the interests of all countries. It would contribute to ASEAN’s goal of economic integration, boosting regional trade and attracting more foreign direct investment. It is essential that all parties bring new flexibility to the table as negotiations intensify over coming months.
Importance of Asian markets for Australia’s merchandise export performance
Australia’s merchandise exports grew by 10 per cent in 2006-07 to $168 billion, driven by strong growth in Asian markets.
Exports of resources and manufactures contributed strongly to growth over the 2006-07 financial year, helped by high commodity prices.
Exports to Japan, China, South Korea and India accounted for 47 per cent of all merchandise exports, compared to 34 per cent in 1999-2000, demonstrating the increasing importance of Asia to Australian exporters.
India became Australia’s fourth-largest country merchandise export market in 2006-07, with exports rising 37 per cent to $10.1 billion.
Growth to India was driven by increases in gold exports which comprise nearly half of all merchandise exports to India.
Exports to North Asia increased 12 per cent to $77.9 billion, supported by strong growth in exports to China (up 26 per cent to $22.8 billion) and South Korea (up 11 per cent to $13.1 billion). The strong growth in exports to China reflected big increases in iron ore, nickel and wool exports. With a 19 per cent share of Australian exports, Japan remains our largest export market. Exports increased 5 per cent in 2006-07 to $32.6 billion.
Exports to ASEAN (11 per cent of merchandise exports) rose 13 per cent to $19 billion in 2006-07.
Growth was led by a 22 per cent increase in exports to Malaysia (with significant rises in copper, crude petroleum and aluminium).
Exports to Singapore rose 10 per cent, with exports of crude petroleum up by 30 per cent.
Exports to Indonesia rose 6 per cent, supported by rises in crude petroleum, live animals and zinc.
Elsewhere, exports to New Zealand rose 8 per cent to $9.5 billion with large increases in fuels and agriculture exports.
The United States accounted for 6 per cent of Australia’s merchandise exports. In 2006-07, merchandise exports to the United States increased 0.4 per cent, despite the stronger Australian dollar, with increases in medical instruments and nickel offsetting falls in minerals, fuels and passenger motor vehicles.
Exports to the Middle East increased 4 per cent to $6.6 billion with substantial increases in gold, passenger motor vehicles and zinc.
Exports to the European Union (11 per cent of merchandise exports) increased 2 per cent to $19.2 billion, with falls in gold and coal exports offset by significant increases in manufactures exports (up $739 million) and mineral ores such as nickel and zinc (up $931 million).
Australia provides $15 million for disaster risk reduction in the Asia Pacific
Australia will provide $15 million to help reduce the risk of natural disasters impacting vulnerable communities in the Asia Pacific region.
Natural disasters in the Asia Pacific region are costly both in human and economic terms.
In 2005 over 90 per cent of those killed from natural disasters were from our region.
Australia has responded to around 60 natural disasters in the past five years, mainly in the Asia Pacific region. Since 2005 the Australian Government has contributed over $1.16 billion toward humanitarian response and relief operations
Natural disasters overwhelmingly affect developing countries, demonstrating that disasters are a development issue.
Communities impacted by natural disasters are poor, lack adequate infrastructure and governance, and have few preparedness mechanisms.
Underlying factors of risk, such as poverty, need to be addressed to reduce the number of people killed and affected by natural disasters.
This additional $15 million will be used to reduce the underlying risks of natural disasters in order to save lives and reduce economic impacts.
Australia’s commitment will contribute to a range of risk reduction measures, including improved building construction practices, early warning systems, disaster education, and mapping the occurrences of natural hazards.
Australia's key partners for these activities will be the World Bank and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
These partners will work with scientific organisations, community groups, governments and the private sector to address underlying causes of risk, share information on best practice disaster management, and strengthen leadership in regional coordination.
Australia and Indonesia co-chaired the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting of the Task Force for Emergency Preparedness in Cairns on 20-23 August. The Task Force coordinates and facilitates emergency preparedness activities amongst APEC's 21 member economies.
During the three-day meeting, the Task Force recognised that emergency preparedness and disaster risk reduction are needed to both save lives and reduce economic impacts from natural disasters.
News Stories - 23 Aug 2007
Australia tightens its sanctions against senior Zimbabwe regime figures
Australia has strengthened its bilateral sanctions against the regime of President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. The measures are an extension of sanctions already imposed on those individuals we have identified as being responsible for the dire situation besetting Zimbabwe or for human rights abuses in that country.
The Government has decided to screen all new student visa applications from Zimbabweans to identify any applicants who may be children of Zimbabwean officials or regime supporters subject to Australian travel and financial sanctions.
Applications so identified will be referred to the Minister for Foreign Affairs for consideration as to whether their presence in Australia would be in Australia’s foreign policy interests.
In addition, the Government has cancelled the visas of eight visa holders presently in Australia who are identified as adult children of sanctioned Zimbabweans. The Government has also initiated steps to reject the student visa applications of a further two individuals who are children of a senior Mugabe regime figure. For privacy reasons, the names of the individuals subject to these measures will not be released.
The tightened sanctions send a message to members and supporters of the Government of Zimbabwe that there is a real cost to their continued support for the suppression of democracy and the disastrous policies being pursued by President Mugabe.
The measures are designed not to harm the people of Zimbabwe, nor will they affect the majority of Zimbabwean students in Australia, whom we are pleased have chosen to study here and who help maintain the strong people-to-people links between our two countries.
Australia imposes travel bans on leading members of the Mugabe regime and, since 2002, has suspended non-humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe, prohibited defence sales and suspended all defence links, down-graded cultural links and suspended bilateral ministerial contact.
In addition to travel sanctions, Australia’s financial sanctions prohibit transactions involving the transfer of funds or payments to, by the order of, or on behalf of listed persons.
Australia contributes $6.5 million for global climate challenges
Australia is significantly scaling up its focus on the environment with the release of the aid program's new strategy Aid and the Environment: building resilience, sustaining growth, which includes a $6.5 million contribution to global initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and safeguard water resources across the Asia-Pacific.
The new Australian environment strategy, released on 16 August, highlights how we will invest resources in three high priority areas: climate change, water and environmental governance.
The strategy responds to the environmental challenges that lie ahead for nations in our region.
Water, forests, land and fisheries are fundamental building blocks for livelihoods and economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region. Seventy per cent of jobs in the region depend on natural resources, highlighting the need for sustainable long-term management. Australia will provide $5 million for a new climate change and water management initiative in the Mekong region. The initiative will begin with research on the likely impacts of climate change on water resources and food security in the Lower Mekong Basin.
Working with the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (an international grouping of more than 200 governments, business, development banks and NGOs), we will provide $1.5 million to help improve access to reliable, clean and affordable energy sources such as solar energy, across the Pacific.
Australia is already assisting our regional partners to mitigate the emissions driving climate change. We have committed $196.9 million in 2007-08 to major new initiatives, including $32.5 million for the Climate Change Partnerships Initiative and $164.4 million over five years for the Global Initiative on Forests and Climate.
We have also demonstrated our commitment to the environment through our $240 million contribution to the Global Environment Facility (the financing mechanism for the key multilateral environmental conventions) since 1991.
We will continue to share our environmental management experience and expertise with partner governments and regional and global organisations as we work together to address key environmental challenges that affect us all.
Australia’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations make progress
Australia’s FTA negotiating agenda has progressed with further negotiating rounds being held over the past month with ASEAN, Japan, Chile and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). In addition, a study has been announced on the merits of a bilateral FTA with Indonesia.
ASEAN
Negotiations have intensified this year and have now moved substantively into the market access phase in goods and services. The last (10th) round in Perth made useful progress across most of the negotiating agenda, with a number of chapters now close to finalisation.
The ASEAN Economic Ministers will meet with the Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) Trade Ministers in Manila on 26 August to review progress in the ASEAN-ANZ FTA negotiations, including the likelihood of concluding negotiations by the end of 2007.
Indonesia
Prime Minister John Howard and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced in Bali on 27 July that Australia and Indonesia will undertake a joint feasibility study on the merits of a bilateral FTA.
The study will commence in August 2007 and is expected to be completed by the middle of 2008.
Japan
The second round of negotiations in Tokyo from 6 to 10 August saw the commencement of substantive discussion on all areas of the FTA agreed at the first round.
Good progress was made in all areas discussed and we have agreed next steps with Japan which will see the tabling of text on most of the possible chapters of the FTA at the next round in early November in Australia.
Chile
The first round of negotiations was held on 7-9 August in Canberra. The Chilean delegation involved seven agencies. We had productive discussions on chapter texts across goods, services and investment and planned next steps.
The second round of negotiations is scheduled for mid-October.
GCC
The first round of negotiations was held in Canberra from 30 July to 1 August. The negotiations were conducted in a positive atmosphere and the large GCC delegation was prepared to engage on issues.
Solid progress was made, with discussions covering all likely major elements of the FTA, including goods, services, investment, intellectual property, competition policy, and institutional and framework provisions.
We also exchanged dispute settlement and services offers.
The second round of negotiations is scheduled for the third week of November 2007.