CANBERRA - 20 October 2021

Speaker,

 

I believe in free trade, and welcome all the benefits that trade can bring us.

 

As an open trading nation, Australia has been a beneficiary of the multilateral rules-based trading system that has operated for decades.

 

Australia has a long history of successfully concluding Free Trade Agreements with countries, and collection of countries.

 

We have before us the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

 

Other speakers have artfully articulated the size and economic weight of the collection of states it encompasses.

 

It brings together much of the Indo-Pacific into a trading relationship.

 

It has been a very difficult period of time for many Australian exporters.

 

Disruptions brought about by the global pandemic, and ongoing trade disputes, have highlighted the need for an effective policy for trade diversification.

 

RCEP, while in many ways welcome, is not a policy for trade diversification.

 

Let’s examine what RCEP is:

 

RCEP will be the world’s second-most important trade agreement on arrival, ranking behind only the WTO itself.

 

RCEP countries include nine of Australia´s top 15 trading partners, accounting for 58% of Australia’s total two-way trade, and 67% of our exports, which is obviously very significant.

 

Importantly, RCEP includes our near neighbours – the ASEAN countries and New Zealand – and our major trade partners China, Japan and South Korea.

 

In this context, Australia’s participation in RCEP affirms the importance we place in our Indo-Pacific geography.

 

The experiences of Australian exporters over the last few years have emphasised the significant impact of geoeconomics on our domestic economy.

 

The COVID-19 global pandemic has also shown the critical role that regional supply chains have on ensuring products make the timely transition from raw material to the consumer’s hands.

 

Noting growing global uncertainty and unease, now more than ever, Australia needs to diversify its trade – both in markets and in products.

 

RCEP will provide a single set of basic rules for Australian SME exporters to RCEP member countries, making regional value chains cheaper by simplifying previously fractured trade regimes and cutting red tape.

 

Labor supports such measures that encourage SMEs to boost exports and create more jobs for Australians.

 

SMEs account for only 14 per cent of Australia’s exports, whereas In G7 countries they account for 25 per cent and the European Union average is 35 per cent.

 

However, exporters contribute more than non-exporters to jobs and productivity, on average employing more staff, paying higher wages and achieving higher labour productivity compared to non-exporters.

 

Lifting SME exports to 25 per cent of Australia’s exports would increase our GDP by an estimated $36 billion.

 

Labor has previously raised concerns over the Morrison Government’s refusal to commission independent economic modelling for the RCEP.

 

We have also called for the final treaty text to be publicly released before the agreement was signed to allow it to be scrutinised – but this did not occur.

 

Greater transparency in the development of trade agreements is vital in building community support for fair and open trade.

 

We know there is ongoing unease and concern in the community about the potential dangers of free trade agreements.

 

This unease can only be addressed through engagement and transparency.

 

Labor has been in consultation with the union movement and other civil society stakeholders throughout the negotiations and eventual signing of RCEP.

 

We have written to the Trade Minister to clarify issues relating to the Government’s ability to regulate our domestic aged care regime under the agreement, to ensure the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care can be realised.

 

I look forward to the Government’s assurances on these matters being placed on the parliamentary record in the course of this debate.

 

RCEP does not include an Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, and it is worth noting that the use of ISDS clauses is in decline in Australian trade agreement.

 

Importantly, RCEP does not include any commitments in relation to waiving labour market testing for migration purposes, beyond those in our existing trade agreements with RCEP signatories.

 

An Albanese Labor Government would ensure that future reviews of RCEP would confirm that Australia’s national interest is pursued without undermining Australia’s ability to democratically set our own policy.

 

This would include areas such as migration, labour standards, aged

care, child care, government procurement, and the environment.

 

So there are some positive elements to the RCEP.

 

But there are also issues which the Government must address, not just with the RCEP, but with its entire posture relating to trade policy.

 

I have had the opportunity to think a great deal on the question of our trading relations with our region.

 

From June 2019 I chaired the Indo-Pacific Trade taskforce of the Labor Party.

 

We undertook extensive consultation with experts, officials, industry, and other figures.

 

Our final product, a 42-page report with 13 distinct policy recommendations, really got to the core for the need not only of trade diversification, but also of focusing on trade as a pathway to economic growth.

 

Our recommendations go some way further than the approach of this current Government, which has been to negotiate and conclude trade agreements, and then once they’ve got that announcement and the front page story, move on to the next thing without necessarily doing the hard work required to activate these agreements.

 

What they don’t understand is that the trade agreement is in fact only the first step in improving trade with a country, or a collection of countries.

 

There needs to be ongoing attention to issues and non-tariff barriers, and a constant dialogue with industry and businesses on the course of trade.

 

To share just one recommendation from the taskforce report that goes to this:

 

“Increasing major exporters’ Asia capability via a mutual DFAT secondment program.

 

“Subject to additional funding and to security clearance requirements, major Australian exporters and investors on long-term deployment in an Indo-Pacific market could receive training from DFAT’s Diplomatic Academy, a short-term placement in the relevant DFAT country section to be sensitised to the national interest, and an in-country briefing by Post.

 

“In exchange, DFAT and Austrade officers on pre-deployment training could spend three to six months embedded in one of the top exporters or investors in their market.

 

“This would benefit regional and rural businesses outside the Canberra-Sydney-Melbourne triangle.”

 

Obviously, Speaker, as someone who represents an electorate in regional Australia outside of that triangle, it would be excellent if we could jump on and make the most of such recommendations.

 

Because Government has a role to play in enhancing trade diversification, and in increasing our prosperity on the back of trade.

 

That is something that this government would do well to remember: it’s the hard work that’s required, not just the signing of agreements, as important as they are.

 

One source of controversy in the process of developing RCEP has been the inclusion of Myanmar.

 

The coup in Myanmar earlier this year and the ongoing violence by the military regime, and the ongoing denial of the rights of the people of that country, are completely at odds with not only our values but the values of free and open trade.

 

While the exclusion of Myanmar from RCEP may have proven to be too difficult when the agreement included the rest of ASEAN, there are still nonetheless concrete steps this Government can take to ensure that Myanmar’s inclusion in RCEP does not convey legitimacy to the regime, and their actions.

 

In June, the Government-chaired Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade recommended sanctions against the Tatmadaw.

 

And the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties in August embarrassingly had to remind the Morrison-Joyce Government once again of the need to act.

 

Specifically, the JSCOT inquiry into RCEP recommended that the Government, and I quote:

 

“Continues to pursue the restoration of civilian, democratic rule in Myanmar as a foreign policy priority, and considers making a declaration to this effect at the time of ratification.”

 

The Morrison-Joyce Government’s refusal to implement any sanctions since the coup sends precisely the wrong message: that Australia does not care – that we are mere bystanders to democratic backsliding in our region.

 

Australia has a long-standing policy of recognising states, not governments.

 

Nevertheless, Labor calls on the Morrison-Joyce Government to engage at a high level with the National Unity Government of Myanmar.

 

Australia must stand up for human rights.

 

It is past time for the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to act in support of Myanmar’s democracy – to implement targeted sanctions and support the people and democracy of Myanmar.

 

Australia must once again become a global leader in defending free trade and working with like-minded nations to reform and modernise the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to reflect the realities of today’s global economy and reform the stalled disputes process.

 

In the interim, regional agreements such as RCEP - which include our greatest trading partners and offer their own dispute settlement processes - are integral to maintaining a rules-based environment for our trading nation to operate in.

 

But free trade agreements, in whatever form they come, are not a substitute for an effective policy for trade diversification.

 

It is high time – well past time – for this Government to create a plan for trade diversification and implement it.

 

We can create new prosperity from trade, and Government must play its part in achieving this.

 

It is the Federal Government’s role to ensure that we are doing the hard work to make sure that trade is diversified, not just in the Indo-Pacific region, but throughout the world.

 

We have brilliant businesses, we have brilliant industries, we have brilliant workers.

 

Federal Labor will always make sure that Australian workers and businesses have every protection and opportunity to trade with the world.

 

That’s how we became the prosperous nation we are, and it’s the Federal Government’s responsibility not just to write and get agreement on trade agreements, but to do the hard work to make sure that non-tariff barriers are removed wherever possible, to reform the WTO, but importantly to diversify our trade.

 

We face very challenging times to come.

 

We must ensure we’re not overly exposed to any one market.

 

And the Morrison Government simply has not done enough to ensure that exposure is reduced, and has not done enough to support our exporting businesses.

 

We must lift the number of SMEs that are given those export opportunities.

 

I want to thank everyone who is working hard on this, and I want to again encourage the Federal Government to diversify more, so that we have more eggs in more baskets for the ongoing security and prosperity of our nation.

---------
ENDS