The Hon. Mark Vaile MP, Minister for Trade

Australia

A Trading Nation

In October this year, the international community will focus its attention on Australia as we welcome the world’s third largest sporting event, Rugby World Cup 2003. While the scale and focus of RWC 2003 will differ from our Olympic experience, one thing will remain the same – this major event will attract international visitors from around the world, many of them business leaders and decision makers.

Like the Olympics in 2000, Rugby World Cup 2003 offers another great opportunity to sell Australia to the world while we’re in the spotlight of a major sporting event. The 20 countries that have qualified for the Rugby World Cup are already worth A$55.5bn in export revenue to Australia, and our trade continues to grow.

Far and wide: Australia’s diversifying exports are reaching new markets

Among the qualifying countries will be some of our biggest trading partners, including Japan, New Zealand, the UK (England, Scotland and Wales will compete in their own right), Italy, France, Canada and South Africa. The Tournament will also give us unique opportunities to create business links with emerging trading partners in Latin America (Argentina and Uruguay), the Pacific (Fiji and Samoa), and Europe (Romania and Georgia).

Emerging from the success of the government’s Olympic business program, which generated A$1.2bn in new business outcomes, the federal government has launched a new business facilitation initiative alongside Rugby World Cup 2003 – Rugby Business Club Australia.

Led by Austrade, Rugby Business Club Australia is the centrepiece of the federal government’s Rugby World Cup 2003 business programs. RBCA provides a unique business marketing and matching service against the backdrop of this exciting sporting event.

Export success Australian wine, cars and tourism are well-publicised export success stories. The booming automotive industry exported more than A$4.8bn worth of products – 30% of local production – last year. Australian wine ex-ports continued their boom in 2002, growing a further 21% in value to a total of A$2.3bn. Tourism exports, despite the uncertainties of the past 18 months, have enjoyed growth of 19%, from A$13.7bn to A$16.3bn over the past five years. In 2000/1, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated there were ap-proximately 25,000 exporting companies in Australia. That number increased last financial year by al-most 6500 firms, or more than 25%. While it’s still early days, we’re beginning, through Austrade and our export facilitation programs like Rugby Business Club Australia, to realise our goal of 50,000 exporters by 2006 – and creating potential export revenue in excess of A$40bn for the Australian economy.

Competition and liberalisation
In sport, as in international trade, Australia thrives on competition. We have built a reputation around the globe as a world player, successful exporter and champion of free markets. The government’s trade policy is one of competitive liberalisation – a strategy that reflects the most ambitious trade agenda in Australia’s history. In the past 12 months, we have concluded a Free Trade Agreement with Singapore, begun negotiating FTAs with the US and Thailand, and advanced trade and economic agreements with China and Japan.

We have signed a Closer Economic Partnership agreement, alongside New Zealand, with the 10 ASEAN member countries, and we have re-invigorated the APEC agenda on issues affecting the Asia-Pacific region. We have ensured, as Chair of the Cairns Group, that this grouping of nations has become – alongside the United States and European Union – the third force in the Doha Round of global trade negotiations.

All these initiatives – at multilateral, regional, and bilateral levels – are part of our strategy of maximising trade opportunities with individual countries, in the Asia Pacific, and globally.

In the end, our trade strategy is about ensuring, in a difficult and uncertain trading environment, that Australia’s exporters achieve greater access to overseas markets as quickly, as broadly and as deeply as possible.

Australia’s strong economy and expanding export range
As in sport, international economic success can only be built on strong, stable domestic base.
Our economy remains incredibly strong – our growth is among the the fastest in the OECD, and has been achieved while holding unemployment, inflation and home loan interest rates in check, and while reducing government debt.

Our exports are reaching more markets, and our exporters are expanding the range and sophistication of the goods and services that we supply to the world. In 2002, despite weakened demand in key markets and the effects of the drought in many parts of Australia, our export volumes were down only 0.1%. Moreover, the value of our exports, while down 2.3%, was still near record levels, at A$151bn.

Our capital imports have been strong – evidence of business investing in the future and making our nation more productive and competitive. Our interest payments are a result of increased private borrowings, not public borrowings.

And Australia, for the first time in 17 years, has an ‘AAA’ credit rating with both Standard & Poor’s and with Moody’s, allowing our private sector to borrow – and invest – more cheaply.

Our standard of living – the quality of our communities, the prosperity of our families, the security of our jobs – all depend more than ever on our ability to compete in the global market place. Our future lies in building an export culture, and diversifying Australia’s exports is just one of a range of tools for maintaining our export success story.

Indeed, more than 20% of Australia’s gross domestic product today comes directly from exports. This means one in five jobs across Australia is reliant on exports. In regional Australia that figure increases to one in four jobs.

Whether you’re an Australian company looking to develop or expand into overseas markets, or an international firm interested in the opportunities Australia can provide as a trade and investment partner, I hope you will join me in getting involved in Rugby Business Club Australia, as we make the most of the commercial benefits of the Australian Rugby Union’s hosting of Rugby World Cup 2003.

Website:
www.trademinister.gov.au