[asia-apec 1534] NZ-Australia Trade Ministers Joint Statement

[APEC Monitoring Group]

Joint Statement: CER Trade Ministers' Meeting
Press Release New Zealand Government 31/08/00 13:21:00

Joint Ministerial Statement


The Hon Jim Sutton

Minister for Trade Negotiations

New Zealand


The Hon Mark Vaile

Minister for Trade

Australia


The annual Australia/New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Ministers’
meeting took place in Auckland on 30-31 August 2000. The Hon Jim Sutton and
the Hon Mark Vaile issued the following statement at the conclusion of their
meeting:


“As Australian and New Zealand Trade Ministers do every year, we have over
the last day had the opportunity to review progress of CER, and to discuss
how we might wish to develop it in the future. We agreed in March that we
would talk about how we might lift CER to a new level. We reaffirmed today
the great value that our two Governments attach to the trans-Tasman
partnership and to the strong tradition of consultation, cooperation and
progress that sustains it. We had stimulating and fruitful discussions on
how we might take a fresh look at the economic relationship between our two
countries, in order to continue to reap the gains that have been made over
the last 17 years, since the Australia New Zealand Closer Economic Relations
Agreement was signed in 1983.


On the first afternoon of the meeting we discussed regional and multilateral
issues.


We agreed that current discussions on freer trade between AFTA and CER were
a priority for us both. We renewed our commitments to engage with ASEAN
countries with the objective of securing agreement to commence negotiations
on a free trade area of mutual benefit for all parties. We agreed to
cooperate closely in the run-up to the Chiang Mai meeting and beyond, taking
into account the recent and forthcoming visits to the region by us both.


We also agreed to keep in close touch on any further opportunities for CER
to discuss possible free trade agreements with third parties. We discussed
the agreement between Singapore and New Zealand for a closer economic
partnership initialled on 18 August, acknowledging the importance of keeping
each other fully informed of such discussions with third parties in the
context of the CER relationship.


We looked forward to continuing to make progress in APEC this year under the
leadership of Brunei. We noted the worthwhile outcomes from the APEC Trade
Ministers’ meeting in Darwin in June and our expectation that these could be
built on further.


On the WTO, we reaffirmed our desire to see a new Round launched at the
earliest opportunity, and renewed our commitment to work towards this end.
We also emphasised our joint commitment to the objective of the Cairns Group
of countries working for the liberalisation of world trade in agricultural
products, and expressed the hope that the forthcoming meeting in Banff would
consolidate progress of Cairns Group work in the WTO negotiations on
agriculture.


We discussed two specific issues in the WTO context, and how we might make
progress on them – the administration of the access provisions for
Australian and New Zealand wool to China, and continued close cooperation on
our dispute with the United States on our lamb exports as the mid-term
review of the US safeguard measure approaches.


For the first time in several years our meeting included wide-ranging
discussions with the trans-Tasman business community. We met with business
people from both sides of the Tasman for an hour and a half at the beginning
of this morning’s talks. We welcome this dialogue with business and found
the direct interaction this morning was valuable to our subsequent
discussions. We hope to continue the practice of business involvement at
these meetings in future years.


As we had earlier agreed, we had a good preliminary look at ways of
deepening and enhancing our CER cooperation. We noted recent developments in
global and regional trade and how these impacted on our economies. We had a
stimulating exchange of views on taking forward our existing trans-Tasman
cooperation, noted ways in which our cooperation might be strengthened and
looked ahead at how we might build on our joint efforts to further integrate
our two economies and their potential to enhance efforts to improve the
regional and multilateral trading environment.


We noted that such further integration could lead to increased cost
efficiencies, to greater critical mass, to improved trans-Tasman trade
facilitation and to stronger regulatory structures. These developments will
contribute to strengthening our economies and maximising international
competitiveness. There is some exciting work currently being undertaken by
officials in the areas of therapeutic goods and the wider field of public
health and safety which is building on the first ventures into regulatory
integration embarked on a few years ago.


We welcomed the announcement on 29 August by our respective Treasurers that
Australia and New Zealand have agreed to examine the tax treatment of
trans-Tasman investments. We noted that there will be an assessment of the
costs and benefits of ‘triangular taxation’ which occurs where Australian
shareholders in a New Zealand company operating in Australia are unable to
access Australian sourced franking credits, with the same problem applying
for New Zealand shareholders in Australian companies operating in New
Zealand. As our Treasurers have indicated, the examination of triangular
taxation is a worthwhile step in addressing possible barriers to
trans-Tasman investment. Examination of this issue, a priority for business,
has the potential to strengthen CER through improving the ease of capital
flows. Officials have been tasked to report back on this issue by 30 June
2001.


We also welcomed the finalisation of a revised Memorandum of Understanding
on the Coordination of Business Law. Today we signed the MOU with the New
Zealand Minister of Commerce, the Hon Paul Swain, whose counterpart, the Hon
Joe Hockey, signed it in Canberra last week. This Arrangement will provide
an excellent framework within which we hoped a number of outcomes can be
achieved in the area of alignment of business law in order to increase ease
of capital flows and trans-Tasman business integration. The possible merger
of the Australian and New Zealand Stock Exchange is an instance of a
trans-Tasman commercial development with the potential to add impetus to
broadening and deepening the CER relationship.


We had a good discussion on rules of origin, including the changing nature
of the production and distribution system and the issue of valuing
intellectual input into product in the new “knowledge economies”. We noted
the provisions in New Zealand’s Closer Economic Partnership Agreement with
Singapore and the discussions currently under way in the AFTA/CER. We asked
officials to study, and report to us around the end of the year, on the
implications for CER rules of origin.


We reaffirmed our Governments’ intention to negotiate an open skies
agreement between our two countries, and noted that negotiations are
scheduled to be held shortly. We welcomed in the context of the wider
development of CER the free trade in air services between us that such an
agreement would make possible.


We noted with interest our respective trade promotion agencies’ plans to
consider joint promotion of CER countries as an investment destination in
the region. We agreed that such an initiative would be in tune with a new,
more strategic approach to CER and asked officials to carry out further work
on refining a proposal.


We welcome the progress made in the high-level biosecurity dialogue since
our last meeting. We reviewed several outstanding bilateral quarantine
issues, expressed our expectation that these would be resolved within a
reasonable timeframe, and reaffirmed our commitment to continuing to uphold
our international commitments in this area.


Lastly, we had a productive exchange on industry policy, noting the recent
increased alignment of our Governments’ perspectives. We noted that
officials have in train plans to deepen the trans-Tasman dialogue on this
issue.


ENDS