Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Can I say how much I admire the optimism of the Minister for Trade. Speaking as an optimist, I am sure it will take every bit of that optimism if we are going to see any resolution to the Doha Round. I also join him in thanking the Australian industry representatives who were part of his delegation, particularly my old colleagues at the NFF and other agricultural peak bodies and also, of course, the manufacturing and service sector.

It is indeed a disappointment to Australian exporters and the export industry in general to see a breakdown in the Doha Round of world trade talks. The Doha Round represented a rich opportunity for Australian exporters who have much to gain from the continued pursuit of a robust trade liberalisation regime. The market-access gains from a successful conclusion to the round would have been considerable and would have benefited Australia’s traders greatly, stimulating global economic growth from which Australia could profit. The World Bank estimates that full merchandise trade liberalisation could boost global income levels by as much as US$287 billion in 2015.

The coalition understood exactly what was at stake at the Doha Round and had invested strongly in securing a positive outcome in the interests of Australian exporters and to open up commercial trade opportunities for agricultural produce, goods and other manufactures, and services. The Doha Round had the potential to open vast new markets for Australian exporters. Before the ministerial talks, the coalition had laid out objectives that the minister must meet in order to secure a positive outcome for local exporters. These objectives included dismantling farm subsides in the EU and the US; overcoming barriers in Europe to new opportunities for Australian agricultural exports; slashing applied tariffs in all markets; preventing special exclusions for certain products and long lead times; and, finally, ensuring new opportunities for agricultural exports, manufacturing and services in developed and developing nations. So, yes, it is indeed a disappointment that the global free trade talks have failed.

I have not received a briefing from the minister so I do not fully understand the depth of the cuts that were being offered, particularly the cuts to US trade subsidies. But it is my understanding that, based on current commodity prices, those cuts proposed and outlined by the minister may in fact not have had a great deal of impact in current economic times. I was not given the opportunity to understand what the coefficient that was going to be used on tariff reform was going to be set at or what its potential impact on industries such as the automobile industry was going to be. I look forward to having it explained to me what services concessions were going to be achieved, which countries we would get those concessions from and which countries would actually allow us better services access. But all that lies in the future.

Beneath the disappointment lies a fundamental issue: the way this government has pursued trade policy. The collapse of the round held recently in Geneva has exposed the weakness of the Rudd government and its chaotic, haphazard and politically motivated approach to trade. During its nine months in office this government has repeatedly gambled with the futures of Australian export industries and the investors in those industries by taking a narrow approach to trade that has undermined the pursuit of bilateral free trade agreements. The trade minister has told the House today that this is his sixth ministerial statement. But, as with everything we have seen from this government, those empty words have delivered nothing for the Australian businesses and families involved in exporting. The minister has omitted to mention that, even after six statements, the government has been caught out with a flawed trade policy that in the wake of the collapse of the Doha talks has left Australian exporters in a precarious situation. The member for Hotham speaks ad nauseam about being ‘so close’ to a deal on Doha, but we on this side of the chamber know that ‘so close’ is nowhere near good enough. Do you think the Australian pace bowler Stuart Clark takes solace after every delivery by saying to himself, ‘That was so close’?

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