AGRICULTURE —
INTERNATIONAL TRADE RELATIONS
441. Hon RICK MAZZA to the Minister for Agriculture and Food:
I refer to market
tensions with current trading partners.
(1) Is the state
government currently pursuing trade agreements with other trading partners such
as India and Indonesia to safeguard WA agricultural enterprises and jobs?
(2) If yes to (1), what measures
are being taken?
(3) What funding
will be dedicated, and over what period, to ensure a level of diversification
within our agricultural industry to ensure its long-term future?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the
question.
(1)–(3) Obviously,
I think there is a salutary lesson that Australia should not be following down
the path of Donald Trump. We have a huge trade surplus with China and we need
to ensure that we have respectful relationships with such an important trading
partner. However, we are absolutely aware that we need to diversity in all our markets; just as the New
Zealanders found when the English entered the common market, a reliance on one particular market can be very
dislocating. We are certainly doing a whole range of things. Within the
department there is a dedicated trade and investment directorate, which is
doing a very good job to look at diversifying our markets. For example, last
year, we brought down a number of delegations from ASEAN countries, really
well-targeted, wholesalers and retailers, to show them Western Australian
value-added products. We have big wine expos every year in Singapore. We have
had delegations going to Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries, promoting
our boxed meat, and, of course, we are doing a lot of work with India. Indeed,
delegations from India and Indonesia were going to be coming down this year,
which, of course, have been delayed. We are really working very hard on the
malting barley exports to India.
I want to put in a plug here for the
work done by the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre, which we half fund. I urge members who are interested in
this matter to make sure that the federal Grains Research and
Development Corporation does not dismember AEGIC. It has been doing
extraordinary work in developing new markets
throughout Asia for our oats products, innovating with oats into noodles and
rice, and, of course, solving all the issues that have been an
impediment for us to get our malting barley into India. It is a very important
agency to keep supporting so that we can get this diversification of our
market.