15 July 2008

Interview - PM

MARK COLVIN: Australia's Trade Minister Simon Crean has put the chances of a breakthrough in the world free trade talks at 60 per cent. He says high world food prices and the need to stimulate the global economy are providing added urgency for a deal. The talks have been deadlocked for four years but a new draft text has been released, with a meeting of 40 trade ministers called for next week in Geneva.

Mr Crean is heading to the Geneva talks shortly. He spoke to Alexandra Kirk.

SIMON CREAN: This is a real opportunity. It is crunch time. It's not without its difficulties, but it is doable.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: How much better is the deal looking now in the latest draft negotiating texts?

CREAN: There's been significant narrowing of the differences in the texts. There are still a number of areas to be resolved so we shouldn't kid ourselves that it's going to be an easy task, it won't be. But I think the important thing Alex, and I've noticed this, this year, that in all of the times when ministers have been brought back together, when they've engaged, that's when the political will has been injected. That's when we've made progress.

Now I think that there would have been a point at which the negotiators just couldn't take it any further. It's only going to conclude if we get the ministers together. That's what next week is about. Let's hope we can pull it off.

KIRK: And is there pressure on Australia to do better?

CREAN: Well Australia has been at the forefront of this but we are under pressure in terms of our tariff levels…

KIRK: And what can you offer?

CREAN: Well that's for the negotiations. We're not going to offer anything unilaterally. We're not going to offer anything that doesn't get us something in return.

But I think that the fundamental point that we need to understand is this: world trade grows faster than world output. Each new round in the WTO (World Trade Organization) has given the globe an economic impetus.

What the world needs at the moment is an economic stimulus. If we can get this round up, it is going to provide much needed stimulus to economic growth … but to an opportunity in which all countries can share in it.

KIRK: How do rate the chances of a breakthrough?

CREAN: Well, I rate them 60 per cent. So I'm not trying to be starry-eyed about this. We still have some difficult, tough negotiations to do.

But in all of the dialogue that I've had, whether it's been in face-to-face meetings with other ministers or on the phone, and I've been working the phone flat out for the last seven months, every time we have that engagement, I'm encouraged. Whenever we stay away from that engagement, that's when the talks stall. Now that we've got the engagement, let's make it happen.

KIRK: If it doesn't happen in the next week in Geneva, is that it?

CREAN: I'm not going to contemplate that sort of an outcome at this stage of the game, Alex. We've fought too hard to get to where we are. But with the political will and the determination and the stakes - high world food prices, the need for the economic stimulus - these are the things at stake.

KIRK: In the context of free trade and also the environment, is Australia thinking about a carbon tariff on goods that are produced in countries that won't or don't have an emissions trading scheme or a carbon tax?

CREAN: No, we think this would be the wrong way to go because it's another form of protectionism. Under the guise of saving the environment, it's really limiting the flow of product between…

KIRK: But wouldn't it be an incentive though to do the right thing by the environment?

CREAN: Well a bigger incentive would be to drop the trade barriers, the remaining tariffs, on goods that are environmentally friendly, goods and services. Now that's what we have been talking about through the WTO, a register of goods that can trade more freely. That's a path that we would be prepared to investigate. As big as the environmental imperative of climate change is, it's also an economic opportunity. It also is the basis upon which we can develop and trade green jobs.

COLVIN: Simon Crean, the Trade Minister, speaking to Alexandra Kirk.

ENDS

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