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THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR TRADE |  |
Singapore, December 13, 1996
FIVE DAYS OF TALKS; FIVE YEARS PLUS OF PROGRESS
The first WTO Ministerial Conference had delivered a win-win outcome for Australian exporters, extending to 2000 and beyond, the Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Tim Fischer, said today.
"The Singapore Ministerial has been a case of five days of hard effort delivering five years and more of progress toward a new millennium of free world trade," Mr Fischer said at the conclusion of the conference.
"It has delivered opportunities for Australian exporters which are both broad and deep," he said. "Sectors from the fast-growing high-technology and services industries to our more traditional farm and food sectors will feel the benefits. And those benefits will start to flow from early next year and continue well into the new century.
"The Singapore Ministerial has been a remarkable success - 127 countries negotiating across a range of issues from tariffs to investment and competition policy. The foundations it has laid for free trade into the next century will be an enduring tribute to Singapore's Trade Minister and conference chairman, Yeo Chow Tong and WTO Director-General Renate Ruggiero."
Mr Fischer said the principal areas which would provide greatest benefit to Australian exporters were:
* Full commitment to begin preparatory work next year for a new round of negotiations on agriculture beginning in 1999, which will lead to agriculture becoming fully integrated into the WTO rules in regard to export credits, elimination of export subsidies, and trade-distorting domestic measures.
* Agreement to a program of information exchange in order to prepare the way for further broadly-based liberalisation negotiations on services to begin by the year 2000
* A new commitment to a February 15, 1997, deadline for liberalisation of the world's $500 billion telecommunications trade, a sector in which Australia was one of the world's most innovative and efficient suppliers.
* An agreement to begin work on government procurement which would provide Australia's world-ranked construction industry with much greater opportunity to bid for lucrative contracts in the region.
* Agreement to resume financial services negotiations in April 1997 and aim to complete work on the accountancy sector by the end of that year - an area in which Australia has led the liberalisation debate with strong support from its financial and investment sector.
* An agreement to begin work for the first time on world-wide rules and liberalisation for direct foreign investment which will give Australian firms better investment opportunities overseas.
* A strong confirmation of the link between sustainable development and trade liberalisation and the integrity of existing WTO rules have been reaffirmed.
"It is important to note that in all these sectors, Australia was already at - or exceeded - the benchmarks sought by the new agreements," Mr Fischer said.
"These are not net gains for Australian exporters and industry. They are gains pure and simple, with no offsets to be taken into account.
"Australia's overall aim in these negotiations was to deliver more jobs and more prosperity to Australians through trade liberalisation. We wanted to see results we could measure in economic gain, and I believe we have achieved that."
Within this context, Australia also supported the agreement on liberalisation of information technology reached at Singapore, and its integration into this program would be measured against the presentation of export opportunities in the region and around the world. Australia would be working hard over the coming months to encourage others to join in this important initiative.
Mr Fischer said that he was particularly pleased that the Singapore Ministerial had maintained the focus of the WTO clearly on trade reform, and the focus of outcomes on meaningful trade liberalisation.
"I welcome the strength of the final declaration's words deploring the exploitation of children in labour markets, just as I welcome its exhortation to the International Labour Organisation to increase its efforts to remove this exploitation," he said.
"Economic improvement through trade liberalisation provides permanent improvement in living standards and thus permanent improvement in the lot of all children. And the real significance of the work done in Singapore this week will be seen next century, in the world our children and our children's children will inhabit," Mr Fischer said.
Mr Fischer commended the work of his negotiators, and added that non-government representatives from the Australian farm, food processing and mineral sectors had played a helpful role in presenting Australia's interests at this conference.
In conclusion, he again thanked the Singapore Government for hosting so professionally this landmark conference of the world trading system.
Singapore, December 13, 1996
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