Australia-United States FTA Opportunities Continue to Expand

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Mark Vaile, today welcomed the decision of two new US states - Tennessee and Oklahoma - to join the Government Procurement Chapter of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement.

Thirty-one US states have now signed up to the agreement, up from 26 at the conclusion of negotiations in February 2004.

"Australian exporters and businesses now have access to the government procurement markets of 31 US states in addition to the US federal government procurement market which is worth in excess of $200 billion," Mr Vaile said.

Those 31 include all of the major procuring states in the United States: Californa, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

"This increased access to US state government markets is good news for Australian companies seeking to do business with the United States. The United States is the world's largest economy, and taken together US federal and state governments are the world's largest purchasers of goods and services," Mr Vaile said .

Mr Vaile said the Australian Government was strongly committed to helping Australian companies harvest the benefits of the FTA.

"Austrade has established a Selling to Government Team to help business win US Government procurement contracts and already significant new contracts have been achieved for Australian businesses."

"The AUSFTA is a living agreement, creating a dynamic commercial environment for Australian business in the US government sector. I thank the Governors of Tennessee and Oklahoma for their initiative."

Contacts: Carissa Buckland 02 6277 7420