Sky News AM Agenda interview

KIERANGILBERT: And now tothe Trade Minister, Steve Ciobo, who was in China in this last week, and theForeign Minister saying there's no freeze, everything's fine, but we know inyour space that Treasury Wines, for example, have had a bit of rough work intrying to get their exports into the country.

STEVEN CIOBO: Well, Kieran, I think it's important to keep asense of perspective and scale about all of this. One of my concerns has beenthat we've seen, frankly, relatively modest concerns being blown up all overfront pages, etc., which doesn't really accurately equate to the nature of therelationship. So let's be clear on a couple of things. If you look at our tradeinvestment relationship with China, that continues to grow. We've seen reallystrong increases in the volume of exports to China. Our investment relationshipis very strong, and as you know, I was just there more recently. Now, from timeto time, I'm not going to paper over this, from time to time we do see someirritants, and we've seen now, for example, requests for additional paperworkfrom Treasury Wine Estates. That was raised with me last week. I'm now workingwith them to try to resolve that issue.

KIERAN GILBERT: And in relation to that, do you think it was,you know, an isolated reaction to recent debate in this country? Why didTreasury have that hurdle?

STEVENCIOBO: Well I thinkthat's a really difficult question to answer. You're asking me, "Why isChina asking Treasury Wine Estates for paperwork in relation to certificates oforigin?" Or I should say, a higher level of paperwork, certificates oforigin. I can't answer that. I don't know. I'm not, obviously, the Chinesecustoms officials that are looking at this. But what I can speak to, in anaggregate sense, is what's happening, as I said, with trade. And what we seeare really strong growth in the number of Chinese students coming to Australia,the number of Chinese tourists that are coming to Australia, the volume ofexports, even including, for example, wine and agricultural products into China.We're continuing to see ongoing dialogue between China and Australia. So thisis all part and parcel of a relationship which, as I've described on numerousoccasions, is broad, it's deep, it's mature. Yes, we do have some differences,but let's not try to pretend that the whole thing is no good.

KIERAN GILBERT: That's fair enough, but I mean, it's not theChinese customs officials making the decision. As you know, it would have beena much more centrally decided course of action. In that country, that's how italways works. But in a way-

STEVEN CIOBO: Well, but that's an assertion. I'm sorry,Kieran, you don't know that. You know what?

KIERAN GILBERT: I think it's a fair assumption.

STEVEN CIOBO: We stop and ask for additional paperwork ofpeople that are importing things into this country. It's part of what we do aswell. Now, it may prove to be that the quantities involved are large enough.But you know what, I'm not really that interested in megaphone diplomacybetween Australia and China. My focus is upon trying to resolve these issues asquickly and effectively as we can, so that we can get this back on track, andwe can have you know, no barriers to this trade.

KIERAN GILBERT: I understand that, and you are the TradeMinister, of course, you're not a journalist or commentator. But from mostcommentators would suggest that it was a shot across the bow from the Chinesein a sense, in a trade sense, just a couple of weeks after a Budget which isbasically underpinned, predicated upon Chinese growth. It's not like ourbroader economy's not dependent on it.

STEVEN CIOBO: But we're seeing strong growth, though, Kieran.No, but Kieran, this is the point. We are seeing strong growth, and I really Ican't reinforce this enough. If you look at the volumes, if you look at theagricultural exports, if you look at the wine exports, if you look at thenumbers of services exports, and by services exports I mean things like Chinesestudents, and I mean things like Chinese tourists, we're seeing really stronggrowth across the sectors. And year-on-year-

KIERAN GILBERT: That's true, but the Chinese are saying this isall… that's fine, there's growth, but the point is that that was a shot acrossthe bow, that you're putting it at jeopardy. That's basically what the view hasbeen that the Chinese have responded so assertively, just to say look, justremember who's, you know, what's what in all of this.

STEVENCIOBO: Kieran, thesimple fact is if you ... Look, let's distill this down to the basics, okay?What is that Australians want to know? Australians want to know that as aGovernment, we are delivering on our commitment to them to keep opening upexport opportunities for Australia. Now, we did that in a very major way withthe FTAs, that is, the free trade agreements we put in place with Japan, Korea,and China. But since then, what I've been focused on is continuing to broadenso we can continue to diversify our export interests. You know, we brought homethe TPP-11, which is going to open up big markets to Australian exporters. Wedid the deal with Singapore. We've done the deal with Peru. We're shortly, Ihope, about to launch FTA negotiations with the European Union. There are awhole range of different areas where, as a Government, we are delivering uponour commitment to give Australian exporters the very best opportunities, sothat they can export more Australian product around the world, help to driveour economy, and most importantly, help to create jobs for Australians.

KIERAN GILBERT: But the Chinese, as we know, with the foreignstudents and we've seen them react aggressively in a trade sense with theKoreans, for example, shutting down basically any trade with one particularcompany, Lotte, a couple of years ago. That's the backdrop to this trade relationship,isn't it, that they are a giant, we're dependent upon them, and it's abalancing act between our strategic and security priorities and trying tomaintain the good trade ties that obviously is your focus?

STEVEN CIOBO: Well, that's right. My focus is upon makingsure that our trade with our largest trading partner, China, can continuestrongly. We have a mature relationship with China. I've said this hundreds oftimes.

KIERAN GILBERT: Yep.

STEVENCIOBO: You know,that doesn't mean that we have to see eye-to-eye on everything. What it doesmean is we acknowledge where there are differences, we approach each other in arespectful way, mindful of each other's sovereignty, and focused on what we cando together to ensure that we have stability in the region, peace in theregion, and prosperity in the region. And the best way we can drive those threethings: peace, stability, and prosperity, is through good trade and goodinvestment ties, as well as building on the people-to-people links that wehave.

KIERAN GILBERT: On to some local news, the tax debate. OneNation said they backed the company tax plan. Now they've backflipped. How doyou manage dealing with this party and a leader who's quite clearlyattention-seeking with all of this, and worried about a drop in the polls?

STEVEN CIOBO: Well look, we continue of course to speak withthe Senate Crossbench. We are focused on trying to make sure we can deliver onour commitment to the Australian people. As a Government, we make no apologyfor the fact that we are absolutely committed to reducing the tax burden onAustralians. We want to drive more investment, in terms of the businesscommunity, because we know that businesses investing in their businesses driveseconomic growth and drives jobs. And as a Government, we have been absolutelylaser-like with our focus upon creating the right business conditions to drivejobs. Now, for all those who want to stand in the way and say that, you know,the last thing we should do is make Australia's business environment less ormore competitive, in other words, they want us to be less competitive by havinghigher business taxes, well unfortunately, the price that will be paid for thatwill be more Australians unable to secure work opportunities that theyotherwise would get. In other words, higher taxes means fewer jobs. You can'tput it more basic than that.

KIERAN GILBERT: But this One Nation approach, it's prettyblatant, isn't it, what's going on here in terms of supporting it in March, thesame timeframe, the same tax cut schedule? You get to what, a couple of monthslater and it's a terrible thing, it's not going to have the impact? How do youmanage that? How do you deal with that?

STEVENCIOBO: Well Kieran,if you want to talk about the most stark example of political opportunism froma political party, you can't go frankly any further than the Australian LaborParty. I mean, Bill Shorten, when he was last in Government, championedbusiness tax cuts. He stood in the Chamber, and he said, "These are thebest thing. This is going to drive investment, it's going to create jobs."He goes into Opposition, and all of a sudden Bill Shorten doesn't want to knowanything about it. So if you want to talk about absolute rank political opportunism,you can't go any further than the Australian Labor Party.

KIERANGILBERT: SteveCiobo, thank you.