COAG: Inaugural Meeting of Ministerial Council on International Trade

A new era of cooperation on trade issues began today when Australian Commonwealth and State Ministers responsible for trade met in Melbourne for the first meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Ministerial Council on International Trade. The meeting was chaired by the Hon Simon Crean MP, Federal Minister for Trade, and kindly hosted by the Hon Theo Theophanous, the Victorian Minister for Industry and Trade.

The new International Trade Council reflects the importance the Commonwealth and State and Territory governments place on improving Australia’s trade performance and its contribution to Australia’s economic growth.

Its objective is to restore Australia’s level of productivity and international competitiveness through better dialogue and cooperation on a broad range of trade-related issues.

"A stronger trade performance will generate significant dividends for our community. Research shows that export focussed industries create higher paying and higher skilled jobs with better working conditions," Mr Crean commented.

"Everyone around the table today acknowledged that if we want to reap the benefits of trade and ensure our economy is sustainable in the long run, the Commonwealth and the states and territories need to work together to enhance our trade performance," he said.

"The Rudd Government's trade policy is being pursued through the prism of international competitiveness but progress will be limited without cooperation and input from the states and territories. That is why all the Australian governments agreed in March this year that we needed to establish a Ministerial Council on International Trade. No other COAG group can address these issues."

"The purpose of this meeting is to develop a coordinated approach to trade policy reflecting both a whole of government and a whole of governments perspective."

"A key focus of the COAG meeting will be how the Commonwealth, States and Territories can work more closely together to improve Australia's trade and investment performance."

This requires all levels of Government to work together to improve trade related infrastructure including ports and transport and to invest in the skills and education of our workforce."

"Reflecting the changing nature of international trade, the States and Territories can play a key role in addressing the behind the border issues such as regulations, standards and conformance that can impact on our trading performance."

"Export focussed industries create higher paying and higher skilled jobs with better working conditions for our communities. All levels of Government must therefore work together to improve our trade performance".

Ministers acknowledged the benefit of a cooperative approach and better coordination of resources. The Council agreed that Austrade will prepare a report canvassing opportunities for Austrade and State and Territory overseas representation to work more closely together in trade and investment promotion activities, including their trade missions.

Other key outcomes included an agreement by Ministers to:

work cooperatively to develop an assessment of infrastructure needs to improve Australia’s trade performance and submit this assessment to Infrastructure Australia for its infrastructure audit;
identify specific areas of skills shortages impacting on Australia’s trading performance and convey this assessment to the Commonwealth Government as it continues to address this issue;
convey the Council’s views on the importance of ensuring access to world’s best open access broadband communications to the COAG Online and Communications council;
more effectively use Brand Australia across the states and territories for international trade and investment promotion purposes;
identify behind the border issues faced by states and territories to be pursued by the Commonwealth in international negotiations;
coordinate inward investment activity through the National Investment Advisory Board, with outcomes to be communicated annually to the Council;
increase efforts to assist regional exporters; and
cooperate on recommendations arising from the Review of Export Policies and Programs.

"An important role for the Council will be to provide input from a trade perspective into the work of other areas of government on issues like infrastructure, skills and climate change. These all go towards the competitiveness of export industries and allow them to take advantage of improved market access."

"This meeting will provide the opportunity to begin working more closely together on export and investment promotion activities, including in the lead up to the Shanghai Expo in 2010."

Mr Crean updated the Council on the recent developments in the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, as well as the key benefits for Australian business of the new Australia-Chile Free Trade Agreement.

The Ministerial Council on International Trade will meet next in March 2009, if not before. The Council will meet annually after that.