Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—This ministerial statement relates to the nomination of a new Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation. The Rudd Labor government places a high priority on engaging with the United Nations system and pursuing a multilateral approach to addressing the many challenges confronting the international community. Labor governments have always understood the importance of engaging constructively with the global community to work together in the pursuit of a more stable, secure and prosperous world. It was, after all, the Curtin Labor government that worked so hard to ensure that Australia was a founding member of the United Nations in 1945, and Australia therefore had the opportunity to influence the shape of the post World War II order. Since that time, successive Australian Labor governments have always recognised that the United Nations provides us with a means to influence events which go directly to our interests but which we are not be able to pursue by working in isolation. It is for these reasons that Australia has been well served by the UN’s contribution to helping shape the world order. And it is for these reasons that Australia is seeking a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2013-14 term.

Australia’s renewed commitment to and engagement with the UN is paralleled by our renewed commitment to and engagement with the multilateral system of trade negotiations via the World Trade Organisation. As I have said in this House before, a successful outcome to the WTO Doha Round offers Australia the best opportunity for significantly improved export market access for Australian business with substantial flow-on benefits to our broader community. A good outcome to Doha also offers the world’s developing countries the prospect of a significant growth dividend which will assist in reducing poverty and raising living standards.

It is against this backdrop that I am pleased to announce that after careful deliberation the Coordination Committee of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, WIPO, earlier this week selected an Australian, Dr Francis Gurry, as the nominee for the position of Director-General of WIPO. Dr Gurry was selected from a competitive international field of fourteen candidates. Dr Gurry’s nomination will be submitted to the General Assemblies of WIPO for final confirmation in September this year. The Australian government welcomes the support from WIPO member states across all regions for the nomination of Dr Gurry, currently a Deputy Director-General of WIPO and the most senior Australian in the United Nations system. The nomination of Dr Gurry for WIPO Director-General serves as a further demonstration of the new Australian government’s strong commitment to greater engagement with the United Nations system. It also reflects the importance the government places on building a strong, balanced and accessible international intellectual property system, as well as the importance it places on WIPO’s development mandate. Dr Gurry was a strong candidate with excellent credentials for the position. Earlier this year the Rudd government decided formally to nominate Dr Gurry and actively support his candidature. We understood the significance of the position and we appreciated the credentials he brought to this candidature.

Dr Gurry has outstanding qualifications for the position. He has over 20 years experience in WIPO across all major sectors of its mandate. He has a proven track record in leading and implementing major improvements to the international intellectual property system in the international sense. Dr Gurry’s vision for WIPO underlines that the two key roles of the organisation, first, as a service provider to the global economy and, second, as a UN agency with a development mandate, are compatible and complementary.

The government was able to support Dr Gurry’s candidature with a strong political and diplomatic campaign, and we are therefore very pleased with this result. Once confirmed, Dr Gurry will be the third Australian who has served as head of a United Nations agency, after James Ingram, Executive Director of the World Food Program from 1982 to 1992, and Richard E. Butler, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union from 1983 to 1989.

WIPO is a specialised agency of the United Nations. It is dedicated to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property system which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation while safeguarding the public interest, and contributes to economic development. WIPO recognises that intellectual property is an important tool for the economic, social and cultural development of all countries, including developing countries.

WIPO is responsible for promoting the progressive development and harmonisation of intellectual property legislation, standards and procedures among the member states. It delivers important global, intellectual property protection services. It encourages the use of intellectual property for economic development. It also plays a crucial role in promoting better understanding of intellectual property, and provides an important forum for debate on intellectual property issues.

Australia values greatly the work WIPO undertakes globally to support creativity, to stimulate innovation and to drive development. Australia has a comprehensive IP system and makes a strong contribution to both the policy and technical aspects of WIPO’s work. Intellectual property is, of course, crucial to the further development and growth of world trade.

I have spoken here before about the new and broader ‘twin pillars’ approach to trade policy to which this government is committed. What this means is that trade policy cannot be just concerned with reform at the border—the market access issues. As important as that is, it increasingly has to also be about reform behind the border. There is no point in increasing market access if we are not competitive enough to take advantage of it. So, increasingly, it is the ‘second pillar’, or the ‘behind the border’ issues, that will dictate a country’s capacity to compete on the international stage.

Also, with the very fast growth of services and investment flows, trade is increasingly moving away from the traditional ‘produce and ship’ model. Investment, for example, is becoming important as a means for driving trade. Our exporters are increasingly becoming integrated into global supply chains. This, in turn, means that trade policy must increasingly focus on helping exporters in all of their international activities, whether they be trade or investment. So we need to be able to work in an integrated way to assist the internationalisation of Australian industry, developing and growing exporters as much as developing our exports. We announced in the budget earlier this week the reintegration of Invest Australia into Austrade for this very purpose, along with the Global Opportunities program.

Intellectual property is a crucially important part of the government’s ‘twin pillars’ agenda. Given the increasing role of services and investment flows, the international architecture of regulation in this area becomes increasingly important. Effective and transparent intellectual property laws are crucial to encouraging two-way investment flows. WIPO, as the key international agency dealing with intellectual property issues, has a vital role to play in this agenda. Effective leadership, therefore, of this organisation is critical. We are therefore very pleased with Dr Gurry’s nomination.

Consistent with our re-engagement at the multilateral level, we have pursued an increased level of activism on the ‘first pillar’ of the government’s trade agenda. The government’s top trade negotiating priority is securing a successful conclusion to the WTO Doha Round. The government have re-energised Australia’s role in multilateral trade negotiations in recent months. We have dealt ourselves back into the centre of efforts to conclude the Doha Round. This, too, has been a whole-of-government approach.

I participated in the Davos meeting of trade ministers in January this year. This meeting gave new political impetus to efforts to conclude the round. The Prime Minister reinforced this growing political will at leaders levels with his visits recently, particularly to Washington and to Brussels. All ministers are currently advocating and cajoling for this successful Doha outcome.

I am using every opportunity to urge countries to show political will and flexibility to conclude the round this year. I have been on the phone most days talking to other trade ministers from around the world, and I am encouraged at the political commitment that is evident to conclude the Doha Round deal this year. I am pleased to report that we are making progress. We now have in place the main elements of:

• a framework for dealing with ‘sensitive products’ in agriculture,
• a framework for reducing domestic support in agriculture,
• a framework for dealing with non-agricultural tariffs, and
• a framework—through the signalling exercise—for improving services market access.

What we do not have yet is a detailed framework on developing country market access—and it is incumbent on all WTO members to make progress on this issue urgently.

Revised negotiating texts on agriculture and industrial goods are expected within the next few days in Geneva. If these texts can capture the level of convergence that has been achieved in recent weeks and months, they will give a boost to the prospects of concluding the round this year. I am urging my colleagues to engage as soon as possible, and I am pressing for ministers to meet in Geneva in June to discuss the outlines of a deal.

Labor has always understood the importance of achieving multilateral trade outcomes that are supported by regional trade liberalisation via APEC—’WTO plus’—and comprehensive FTAs—’WTO plus plus’.

In our view, the previous government squandered the opportunity provided by Australia’s unique position as chair of the Cairns Group to be front and centre of the Doha Round, allowing Australia to be squeezed out of the talks by other groupings.

These trade negotiations are difficult, particularly at the multilateral level, with so many players involved. But we are not going to make progress unless we are prepared to put in the hard yards. And it is the new Labor government that is prepared to do the hard work.

A successful outcome to Doha is important because world trade has grown three times as fast as world output. It is the world market that offers the greatest opportunities and which will sustain the Australian economy beyond the resources boom.

After each global trade round there has been a surge in world trade. That rate of growth has now slowed. A Doha outcome is needed to provide new impetus to world trade.

Labor is re-energising Australia’s commitment to the multilateral sphere as evidenced by both the developments I have reported on today. We are recalibrating the focus of trade policy, through a stepped-up level of activism at the World Trade Organisation. We are extremely pleased with the nomination of Dr Gurry to lead the World Intellectual Property Organisation. It is a great credit and recognition of Dr Gurry’s capacities, and I wish him well with the confirmation of his nomination later this year, and I look forward to working with him in his new role.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to move a motion to enable the member for Mallee to speak for 15 minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Forrest speaking for a period not exceeding 15 minutes.

Question agreed to.

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