Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer. Will the minister please update the House on the importance of the strength of Australia's long and prosperous economic relationship with the United States of America?

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Petrie. First, I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate President-elect Trump. The Australian government looks forward to working productively and constructively with his administration. Australians, as everyone knows, have a very strong and special, enduring relationship with the United States. It is underpinned by our shared values of democracy, freedom and enterprise. And Australia has no stronger economic relationship than our longstanding economic relationship with the United States of America.

The United States is the world's largest economy, with its GDP estimated at around $17.4 trillion. That is about 22.5 per cent of the world's global domestic product. The United States is and will continue to be a major driver of the economy. For Australia, the United States is our largest direct foreign investor. It is our largest two-way investment partner, with a two-way investment stock reaching over $1.45 trillion in December 2015; and it is our second-largest two-way trading partner in goods and services, at $70.2 billion.

This trade relationship was turbocharged after the Howard government secured the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, which was entered into on 1 January 2005. Upon its entry into force, more than 97 per cent of Australia's non-agricultural exports into the United States, excluding textiles and clothing, became duty-free; and two-thirds of agricultural tariff lines went to zero.

Significantly, Australia and the United States continue to work closely together through multiple trade and economic fora—the G20, the World Trade Organisation and APEC. The enduring national interests of Australia and the United States will ensure that our economic relationship will continue to be very strong well into the future.