Media release

Australian Minister for Trade, Mark Vaile

Thursday, August 31, 2000

Aust/NZ Closer Economic Relations Ministers' Meeting

The annual Australia/New Zealand Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers' meeting took place in Auckland on 30-31 August.

Australian Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, and New Zealand Minister for Trade Negotiations, Jim Sutton, described the meeting as a great success.

"We agreed that current discussions on freer trade between AFTA and CER were a priority for us both," Mr Vaile said.

The Ministers were joined by business people from both sides of the Tasman to discuss ways in which CER could be further enhanced.

"We welcomed the new and fresh ideas that the business representatives brought to the meeting. The prospects for further advancement of CER are very exciting in areas such as e-commerce and we hope to continue the practice of business involvement at these meetings in future years," Mr Vaile said.

Together with New Zealand Minister of Commerce, the Hon Paul Swain, the Ministers signed a memorandum of understanding on the coordination of business law.

"This arrangement will provide an excellent framework within which we hope a number of outcomes can be achieved in the area of alignment of business law, in order to increase the ease of capital flows and trans-Tasman business integration," Mr Vaile added.

Joint Ministerial Statement

The Hon Jim SuttonThe Hon Mark Vaile
Minister for Trade NegotiationsMinister for Trade
New ZealandAustralia

Auckland, New Zealand, 31 August 2000

The annual Australia/New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Ministers' meeting took place in Auckland on 30-31 August 2000. The Hon Jim Sutton and the Hon Mark Vaile issued the following statement at the conclusion of their meeting:

"As Australian and New Zealand Trade Ministers do every year, we have over the last day had the opportunity to review progress of CER, and to discuss how we might wish to develop it in the future. We agreed in March that we would talk about how we might lift CER to a new level. We reaffirmed today the great value that our two Governments attach to the trans-Tasman partnership and to the strong tradition of consultation, cooperation and progress that sustains it. We had stimulating and fruitful discussions on how we might take a fresh look at the economic relationship between our two countries, in order to continue to reap the gains that have been made over the last 17 years, since the Australia New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Agreement was signed in 1983.

On the first afternoon of the meeting we discussed regional and multilateral issues.

We agreed that current discussions on freer trade between AFTA and CER were a priority for us both. We renewed our commitments to engage with ASEAN countries with the objective of securing agreement to commence negotiations on a free trade area of mutual benefit for all parties. We agreed to cooperate closely in the run-up to the Chiang Mai meeting and beyond, taking into account the recent and forthcoming visits to the region by us both.

We also agreed to keep in close touch on any further opportunities for CER to discuss possible free trade agreements with third parties. We discussed the agreement between Singapore and New Zealand for a closer economic partnership initialled on 18 August, acknowledging the importance of keeping each other fully informed of such discussions with third parties in the context of the CER relationship.

We looked forward to continuing to make progress in APEC this year under the leadership of Brunei. We noted the worthwhile outcomes from the APEC Trade Ministers' meeting in Darwin in June and our expectation that these could be built on further.

On the WTO, we reaffirmed our desire to see a new Round launched at the earliest opportunity, and renewed our commitment to work towards this end. We also emphasised our joint commitment to the objective of the Cairns Group of countries working for the liberalisation of world trade in agricultural products, and expressed the hope that the forthcoming meeting in Banff would consolidate progress of Cairns Group work in the WTO negotiations on agriculture.

We discussed two specific issues in the WTO context, and how we might make progress on them – the administration of the access provisions for Australian and New Zealand wool to China, and continued close cooperation on our dispute with the United States on our lamb exports as the mid-term review of the US safeguard measure approaches.

For the first time in several years our meeting included wide-ranging discussions with the trans-Tasman business community. We met with business people from both sides of the Tasman for an hour and a half at the beginning of this morning?s talks. We welcome this dialogue with business and found the direct interaction this morning was valuable to our subsequent discussions. We hope to continue the practice of business involvement at these meetings in future years.