The past week has seen a number of events taking place that will impact Australia’s international trade status. Cabinet ministers are taking part in the Pacific Islands Forum Meeting in Fiji and our Prime Minister has returned from Europe saying that Free Trade negotiations with the EU will resume in coming months, after securing a commitment from the President of the European Commission.
On the downside, Australia’s much touted Free Trade Agreement with the UK had been derailed. The ambitious deal, which had cricket great Sir Ian Botham as its public face, was supposed to unlock more than A$18bn in bilateral trade with the UK, promising Aussies cheap cars, clothes and booze. Now the British parliament’s International Trade Committee has urged a delay in ratifying the deal. Committee Chair Angus Brendan MacNeil MP said they been consistently hindered in their attempts to fully examine the agreement and the steps being taken to ratify it were “overhasty.”
On a more positive note, we can report that the state of Queensland is providing a substantial boost to exporters.
$1.4 million in grants to help Queensland exporters take off.
$1.4 million was allocated to sixty companies in the latest round of the New Market Program Grant, announced in Cairns this week at Banana Feeds Australia during a visit by the Queensland Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment, Cameron Dick. Cairns’ innovative agribusiness Banana Feeds Australia has been named as one of the sixty recipients in this latest round of the Grant.
Australian exports have risen more than 30% the past year, and Queensland is currently generating one in three of those export dollars. The economy of Queensland is the third largest within Australia. The state’s main exports are traditionally considered to be coal, metals, meat and sugar.
The matched-funding grants are aimed at helping exporters overcome barriers to new markets and will allow great Queensland businesses to tap into valuable overseas export opportunities.
Delivered through Trade and Investment Queensland (TIQ), this program offers matched grants of up to $25,000 to export-ready Queensland businesses. Since being introduced in 2021, the New Market Program has seen 87 Queensland businesses share in almost $2.2 million.
TIQ is the Queensland Government’s dedicated global business agency assisting exporters and promoting Queensland as the place to invest. Over the past three years it has helped the state’s businesses achieve an annual average of 356 commercial outcomes – deals that together are valued at more than A$1bn per year.
We continue to bring you up to date with the latest developments in international trade.
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