Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade. Would the Deputy Prime Minister outline to the House what the government is doing to ensure that there is a successful conclusion to the current Doha Round of global trade talks? What could that success mean for Australian exporters, particularly those in my electorate of Indi?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Indi for her question, and I take this opportunity to congratulate the member for Indi on her recent marriage. The Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations that are fast reaching conclusion are very important for all Australian exporters, but particularly a number of exporters in the electorate of Indi. Australia has been pursuing improvement in this area ever since the conclusion of the Uruguay Round.

In the electorate of Indi, the beef producers, the sheepmeat producers, the fat lamb producers, the dairy producers and the wine producers all stand to benefit from a successful outcome to this round. We are determined to deliver the benefits of a successful outcome. For example: the Indi beef producers face tariffs of 38 per cent into Japan and 146 per cent into Europe, and we want to get those down; the Indi dairy producers face tariffs of 246 per cent into Europe, and we want to get those down; the Indi fat lamb producers face tariffs of 92 per cent into Europe, and we want to get those down; and, of course, the Indi wine producers face tariffs of around 25 per cent into the Japanese market, and they would like to get more product into the Japanese market.

So, across the board, multilateral trade negotiations can deliver a very wide range of benefits to many industries within the Australian economy, and particularly in the electorate of Indi. The objective, particularly for those agricultural industries, is that we see the EU make greater commitments to open its markets to agricultural products. We need to see the United States reduce the subsidies it pays its farmers. We need to see the developing countries lower their tariffs on industrial products in order to open up trade across the world. If we are successful with these improvements, the extra access gained could boost agricultural exports from Indi by about 15 per cent.

Just recently an OECD report was released that indicated that Australia had the second lowest level of agricultural support in the OECD. The challenge now confronting the rest of those OECD countries in these negotiations is to match what Australia has already done.