Australian Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb is expected to push for Australia's agricultural trade at international meetings to be held in Bali and Singapore in the coming weeks, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said in a press release Sunday.
Robb has departed on Sunday to participate in the 9th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which will be held from Tuesday to Friday in Bali, followed by advanced high level Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations in Singapore.
Robb is expected to co-chair the 38th Cairns Group Ministerial Meeting in Bali on Monday with his Indonesian counterpart Gita Wirjawan.
The Cairns Group, which was established in 1986, is a coalition of 19 agricultural exporting countries committed to agricultural trade reform, including the elimination of trade distorting subsidies and tariffs. Food security will be a key issue on the agenda.
"Agriculture is one of our country's great strengths and chairing the Cairns Group provides a strong platform to both advance Australia's agricultural trade policy interests and to influence international views on policy reform," Robb said.
"This will be the century of food and water security and as a country we are extremely well placed to help meet surging demand in the Asia Pacific which will be driven by the extraordinary rate of growth in the region's middle classes."
The Ministerial Conference (MC9) to follow is the highest decision-making body of the WTO and will involve ministers from 159 members. The conference will consider a package of reforms around agriculture, including components relevant to developing countries, as well as trade facilitation, which has the potential to reduce total trade costs for exporters.
Robb will pursue Australia's trade interests in a range of bilateral meetings with his ministerial counterparts and will outline Australia's plans for its 2014 G20 presidency, the DFAT said in the release.
The Minister will head to Singapore afterwards for advanced stage TPP negotiations from Dec. 7 to 10. The TPP involves 12 countries responsible for 40 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP).
"There is a broad willingness to resolve outstanding TPP issues and bring these negotiations to a conclusion, however, from Australia's perspective much will depend on the level of ambition around market access," Robb said.
"I will be pushing hard for outcomes that provide significant and material opportunities for Australian businesses and exporters, including farmers, manufacturers and service providers. While the TPP is a 21st century agreement, there are some 19th century issues still to be resolved from a market access perspective."
Robb said the Australian government is committed to a very ambitious trade and investment agenda.
"While these areas of policy are indeed international, they are also of course intrinsically linked to our domestic economic fortunes in terms of supporting sustainable growth, businesses, both large and small and most importantly jobs," he said.
