Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been on a three-summit tour of the Asian region, attending the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Asia Summits in Phnom Penh, followed by the G20 meeting in Bali and then APEC in Bangkok this week. We expect that the outcomes of all these meetings will be to the benefit of Australian importers and exporters.
Australia engages with regional and international trade and investment organisations to boost our economy by promoting and protecting trade and investment opportunities. Australia participates in the World Trade Organization (WTO), G20, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).
During his attendance at the ASEAN-Australian Summit and the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, the PM issued a press release in which he reiterated our commitment to deepening engagement with South East Asia. During a press conference he announced that Nicholas Moore has been appointed as the envoy for South East Asia to implement the development of our South East Asian Economic Strategy to 2040. This sets out a pathway to strengthen Australia’s economic engagement with the region, which was a major part of the government’s foreign policy at the election in May.
G20
The Group of Twenty (G20) is the premier international forum for cooperation on global economic governance. Leaders of member nations meet annually at the G20 Summit, working together to build a resilient global financial system and to promote strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth. This year, Mr Albanese engaged in discussions with the European Union and the UK about their respective Free Trade Agreements with Australia. He also talked about trade issues separately with Italy and France, as well as India with whom we have been vigorously promoting business recently.
Notably, our PM held the first high-level talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20. It’s now a question of whether this breakthrough will lead to serious follow-through, with a relaxation of China’s damaging restrictions on about $20bn of Australia’s exports.
The APEC Forum
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an economic forum of 21 Asia-Pacific economies, which make up over half of global GDP. Australia became a founding member of APEC in 1989 to develop regional economic relationships to boost our growth. Over 70% of our trade in goods and services is with APEC partners. Australia has helped advance regional economic integration and move towards the goal of free and open trade and investment in Asia-Pacific.
At another press conference before the start of the Apec Forum, the Prime Minister said, “Well, I’m engaging at APEC. I look forward to it. I have, as well as participating in the APEC Summit, at the moment, there are a couple of bilaterals scheduled, one of which is with Thailand. I look forward to engaging in APEC. APEC is an important forum. I look forward to promoting Australian business, economic activity and investment in the region.”
According to a statement on the website of DFAT (Dept of Foreign Affairs & Trade) –
Australia’s 2022 APEC priorities include:
- supporting the multilateral trading system and the WTO
- promoting trade and investment liberalisation, including supporting trade in environmental goods and services, promoting services competitiveness and mutual recognition of professional qualifications in APEC
- advancing APEC’s digital trade agenda
- leading work on structural reform
- promoting inclusive and sustainable growth, including through capacity building initiatives on gender data and women’s access to markets and supporting indigenous business internationalisation.
We will continue to monitor the outcomes of these summits and bring you further reports on how they might result in advantages for your international trade and shipping.
For information on all aspects of shipping and transport, contact us here at Colless Young. As licensed Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders, we handle your imports and exports professionally and economically. We are based in Brisbane and offer a complete range of logistics services, by airfreight and sea cargo, through all Australian ports and airports.
