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Journalist: Many of the world’s leading Trade Ministers are here and amongst them is Australian Trade Minister, Mr Simon Crean. Thanks very much for joining us today. We’ve had a Trade Ministers gathering, talks about the Doha Round not far behind. I know you've been talking about that today. Is the current Round looking pretty dead in terms of the sentiment this year?

Mr Crean: I don't think it's looking dead. I think it's capable of being done. I can't guarantee it will be done. The reason I think it's capable of being done is that trade is an economic stimulus. As countries are looking for sustainable economic growth, and this after all is the mandate of the G20, the low-hanging fruit, so to speak, is concluding the Doha Round. Our problem of course is that there is still a number of issues that have to be resolved. Today's meeting was to try and establish beyond the process, a process that actually goes to the substance of it. I'm hopeful that given today's meeting, given the APEC agenda next week, given the G20 meeting in Toronto followed by the one in Seoul this year, we can inject some new momentum into concluding it.

Journalist: Are you using the APEC meeting now and seeing it is a more important forum for actually settling this right now?

Mr Crean: No, no I don’t. The only forum in which it can be settled is Geneva, but it requires political will. APEC is a key gathering of political leaders. So APEC, particularly given the strength of the Asian economy, APEC is a particularly pertinent forum in which to have this discussion because that's really the dynamic and the sustainability of economic growth that's in everyone's interest to nurture.

Journalist: So it's a kind of more interesting forum for you? APEC has become more than just a talking shop if you like?

Mr Crean: It has been for some 20 years. When we drove the establishment of APEC, we saw it as an economic forum for the Asia Pacific. Why? Because we foresaw the fact that the Asia Pacific region was more than just a great collection of developing countries. There were large emerging economies within that space. What we needed was a forum that not only brought ministers together, it brought leaders together. Twenty-one countries now are in it, moving towards closer integration, better integration. Not just at the border, behind the border issues, across the border issues, the whole logistics chain. This is the agenda that's APEC. But it's also important for APEC to inject that momentum, inject that will, that political will to try and conclude Doha as well.

Journalist: You've been pushing for a free trade deal with Korea. That would normally be known as a bilateral deal, I think. Does that suggest really that the Doha process is failing if you like because there you are going for a bilateral deal?

Mr Crean: No, not for one moment. I think our priority is still on the conclusion of the Doha Round. The best outcomes are from the multilateral forum. But we have strategic key interests with our key trading partners. Korea is our fourth-largest export market. Korea is keen to develop a Free Trade Agreement not just in the traditional areas, but a comprehensive agreement that covers services as well as investment. And this is a real opportunity. Now the important thing about the Korea FTA is that we've made really significant progress over the course of the last year - more so than we've made with either China or with Japan. All of those (countries) are in play but it's in our interest to try and drive ambition in whatever forum we can. The biggest ambition is Doha but we want to reinforce through our bilateral agreement, not see them as alternatives.

Journalist: Putting it coldly if you like, does a Doha agreement help you at a time when unemployment is relatively high when in the end it could mean cheap goods flooding into a country like Australia?

Mr Crean: First of all, Australia has not had employment drops in the last recession. So for Australia, we don't suffer that same problem. Why? Because we've embraced trade liberalisation on the one hand, structural adjustment and driving competitiveness and productivity on the other, as well as the fact that we engaged with Asia a long time ago. But as for the broader question about the jobs threat, the most effective way to create job opportunities is to free up more trade. Why? Because trade is a multiplier of economic growth. The countries that have measured the value of the trade flows are recording better job growth. So the evidence points to the fact that jobs come through trade and trade isn't just about exports. Trade is also about countries being able to take inputs as imports but convert them, value add them, use their own competitive advantage. And a lot of the trade flows these days are intermediate goods not just the simple equation of exports versus imports.

Journalist: Just want to ask you finally about a topical point which is the mining tax. There's been court action about it, certainly it has created headlines in Australia. Is that something you're very much pushing ahead with right now - a 40% mining tax - is that going to help the economy?

Mr Crean: Yes, it is. And it's going to help it for two reasons. First of all, it will ensure a better return for the nation for its resource base because it has been under-returned over the last decade or so. Secondly, all we’re seeking to do onshore is to introduce a tax, a resource rent tax, that applies offshore. So it's trying to get equivalence, if you like, in that space. Third, because we're refining the nature of the tax and its application so that the royalty payment, which currently the states apply, can be treated as a deduction and an upfront deduction. It actually will expand opportunities for investment. It will bring forward the more marginal operations because they don't have to pay the tax until the resource turns profitable. Now if you look at world demand at the moment, it's outstripping supply for resources. The best way to get sense back into that equation is to expand supply and this tax will help do it.

Journalist: Simon Crean, Australian Trade Minister, Thank you.

Ends

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