Melissa Clarke: Well, while the Prime Minister and several senior Ministers are in New York, Trade Minister Don Farrell has been in Malaysia meeting with economic Ministers from across Southeast Asia. He joins me now.
Minister, thanks very much for being with Afternoon Briefing.
Minister for Trade: No worries, Mel.
Melissa Clarke: Now you're in KL for the ASEAN Economic Ministers meeting. What's been the outcomes from the discussions you've been taking part in?
Minister for Trade: The discussions are going to be continuing today and tomorrow. ASEAN is a very important economic partner to Australia, but we think we can do more in the region. It's growing very fast. It's a very prosperous region of the world. And I think Australia can do more to sell more of our wonderful food and wine into the region, to do more in the digital space and in particular with critical minerals. So, there's terrific opportunities here for Australian companies, Mel. My job is to make the contact with the various governments in the region, but to then push Australian companies out the door and into Southeast Asia and take advantage of the terrific opportunities here. Too often in the past, Australia has flown over Southeast Asia and delivered goods into China, into Japan and into South Korea. And we've missed the opportunities right on our doorstep in Southeast Asia. So, this will be an opportunity to meet with my counterparts and discuss ways in which we can build trade, build free and fair trade in a world that's increasingly difficult in the trading space.
Melissa Clarke: So, when it comes to dealing with the ASEAN nations, is it a matter of improving the terms of the existing free trade deals that already exist or is it a case of making sure that Australian businesses are taking advantage of the opportunities that are already there?
Minister for Trade: I think it's the latter, Mel. I think there are so many opportunities here under our existing trade agreements. We don't need any more new trade agreements with Southeast Asia. We've got them in place already. What we have to do is to explain the significance and the importance, and the opportunities in Southeast Asia for all of our wonderful Australian businesses. And that's what I'll be doing over the next two days.
Melissa Clarke: You mentioned that it can be a bit of a turbulent time when it comes to tariffs and trade globally at the moment. Do we see China becoming a more stable trading partner for Southeast Asian nations than the US?
Minister for Trade: Look, we've got a very good trading relationship with China. China is now our, far and away, our largest trading partner. And over the last three and a bit years, we've managed to stabilise our relationship with China, and that's resulted in Australian companies getting back $20 billion worth of trade that had been lost over the period of the previous government. We can certainly do more with China, I think, but the policy of this government is to try and diversify our trading relationship. So, we now have a new free trade agreement with the United Kingdom. Our trade with the United Kingdom has doubled. We have a new trade agreement with India. Our trade again has almost doubled. And on the first of October, our new free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates comes into force, and we get all of our products into the United Arab Emirates tariff free.
Melissa Clarke: So, can I bring you back to the question, though, which is, is the US policy on tariffs pushing our Southeast Asian neighbours to deal more closely with China because China is providing a more reliable relationship than the US is?
Minister for Trade: Look, we have to accept the world as it is, Mel. America has changed its policies in recent times. I'll be meeting with my counterpart, Jamieson Greer, over the next couple of days. I'll be talking to him about trying to reverse some of the policies that the United States have adopted in respect to their trading arrangements. We want a free and prosperous Southeast Asia. We want a free and prosperous region. We want to keep the lines of communications open both with the Americans, with the Chinese and our good friends in Southeast Asia. There are the opportunities here.
Melissa Clarke: When you have those discussions with Jamieson Greer, how much emphasis are you putting on winding back the tariffs that the US has imposed upon Australia's exports? Because some of your colleagues are suggesting that the deal Australia has at the moment, given it's better than the tariffs the US imposed on most other countries, isn't too bad. And if it remains as it is, that's not too much of a problem.
Minister for Trade: Well, that's not my view, Mel. I think we should continue to prosecute the arguments with the Americans that we have a free trade agreement with America that was freely entered into 20 years ago and that agreement provides that trade between Australia and the United States should be tariff free. So, all we're asking the Americans to do is to honour the terms of our trade agreement. Now, the Americans may have issues with the way in which that agreement operates, but the message I will be giving to Mr. Greer is, look, we have an agreement. Okay, our tariff rate is the lowest of any country in the world, but we believe it should return to where it ought to be based on our free trade agreement, and that is zero tariff on all products going from Australia into the United States.
Melissa Clarke: We're seeing the Federal Government bailout smelters like Tomago in New South Wales, Mount Isa in Queensland, others in South Australia and Tasmania. This is government support for struggling industries. But does it risk breaking international trade rules on protectionism?
Minister for Trade: No, I don't believe any of the things that either the State or the Federal Governments are doing, often in concert, Mel, breach any of our international obligations. As a country, we need, for instance, to be able to produce steel. That's a matter of national security and national interest. And I don't see any difficulty with Australian Governments, state and federal, making sure that we continue to be able to produce that steel. And I don't believe that there's any conflict with any of our agreements when we do that.
Melissa Clarke: I have to ask, as a proud South Australian, would you like to see car manufacturing return in South Australia? Because Liberal MP Andrew Hastie seems to think it'd be a good idea to be making and manufacturing more goods like that again in Australia. Would you like to see the assembly lines in Elizabeth fire back up?
Minister for Trade: Look, I was in the Parliament when an earlier version of the Liberal Government made an absolutely crazy decision to allow Holden to close in South Australia and the loss of a couple of thousand jobs and then followed by the closure of Toyota. This government has a plan, a Future Made in Australia. We believe we can rebuild manufacturing in this country. But look, let's face it, it was the Liberals under Prime Minister Abbott that let that industry close. I think what we need to do now as a country is to look at what areas we can best get an advantage for our manufacturers, and Future Made in Australia is very much a part of that.
Melissa Clarke: All right, Don Farrell, I appreciate you making time for us while you're in Malaysia. Thanks very much.
Minister for Trade: Thanks, Mel.