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ECONOMY AND FINANCE
Free trade deals to spur growth Historic free trade agreements with Japan and South Korea have opened doors for Australia to become one of the most diversified and globally engaged trading nations, writes Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb.
AUSTRALIA’S trade landscape was altered dramatically in the space of just two days, when the Australian Government concluded negotiations with Japan for the Japan Australia Economic Partnership Agreement (JAEPA) and formally signed the Korea Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA) in South Korea during the first week of April. Already a catalyst for much of our strong trading relationships in Asia, the Australian mining and resource industry will see the benefits of these agreements in fresh export and investment opportunities. Australian export sales to Korea are around $16 billion, and mining and energy products make up almost three quarters of this. Australian iron ore and coal has helped transform the South Korean economy by providing the raw materials to
One in five Australian jobs are linked to trade, and the export figures from our mining and resources industry demonstrate that the sector is an overwhelming contributor. Andrew Robb
build modern cities and affordable energy to power a growing manufacturing sector. I believe KAFTA will further develop this relationship between Australian energy and resources companies and a booming Asian economy that continues to grow and create the demand for our exports as they do so. The agreement will eliminate tariffs of up to eight per cent in 10 years on a number of Australian energy products, such as crude petroleum, natural gas, gold, propane, unwrought lead, unwrought aluminium, gold, titanium dioxide, ammonia and cobalt mattes and articles. Japan, while not an economy undergoing an industrialised
www.amma.org.au | Winter 2014 |
Andrew robb Trade Minister growth period, is our second largest trading partner and our third largest source of Foreign Direct Investment after the US and the UK, and this continues to grow. JAEPA is the most liberal trade agreement that Japan has ever undertaken with another industrialised country. It has the potential to grow our existing investment relationship – an advantage to the minerals and resources industry as the sector seeks access to further foreign capital. In export terms, Japan will eliminate tariffs on 100 per cent of Australia’s energy and resource commodities which will benefit coke and semi-coke coal, non-crude petroleum oil and unwrought nickel exporters. One in five Australian jobs are linked to trade, and the export figures from our mining and resources industry demonstrate that the sector is an overwhelming contributor. That is why we will continue, as a Coalition Government, to pursue an ambitious free trade agenda that will benefit our mining and resources industry. We are committed too, to dispelling the myth that the mining boom is over and reassuring foreign capital markets that, after years of anti-trade, anti-mining and anti-investment Labor policies, that Australia no longer carries any element of sovereign risk and is open for business.