International organisations

Australia is pleased to participate in Tonga’s second Trade Policy Review. Australia and Tonga share a strong partnership, established on the longstanding and extensive people-to-people links between our two countries. Our cooperation spans trade, investment, labour mobility, security, development cooperation and sport. In addition to our bilateral engagement, our two countries work closely together at regional and global levels to promote the shared security, resilience and economic prosperity of the Blue Pacific.

India is a key economic and strategic partner for Australia. The June 2020 decision by Prime Ministers Morrison and Modi to elevate the bilateral relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership underscores our mutual commitment to enhancing engagement across all spheres, including trade and investment. 

On behalf of Australia, I warmly welcome Deputy Minister Kim and the delegation from Korea, and thank the discussant, Ambassador Francke of Chile. The strong economic relationship between Australia and the Republic of Korea (ROK) is a clear example of the benefits of trade in allowing countries to follow their comparative advantages, with benefits flowing to their citizens.  Australia is a major supplier of iron ore, coal, LNG, beef and aluminium to the Korea. And the Korea is a major supplier of passenger vehicles and refined petroleum to Australia. As a consequence, we have seen steady growth in two-way trade, with the unusual decline in 2020 to AUD35 billion (from AUD41 billion in 2019) reflecting COVID-19 related trade impacts.  Overall, Korea was Australia’s 4th largest goods and services two-way trading partner in 2020.

Australia welcomes the opportunity to participate in Singapore’s Trade Policy Review. We have a longstanding, close and comprehensive bilateral relationship with Singapore, anchored in trust and economic cooperation. The upgraded Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) (signed December 2017) forms the central pillar of our trade and economic relationship alongside the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) which underpins the entirety of our bilateral relationship.

Australia has always played a pioneering role in the Trade Policy Review process. Australia volunteered to be the first country to undergo a Review in 1989. We consider it a crucial process for ensuring the multilateral trading system’s foundational values of accountability, predictability and transparency. In the circumstances we find ourselves in today with concerns about the prevalence of coronavirus here in Geneva, we again are playing a pioneering role, by becoming the first country to experience what we might term a “virtual TPR”. While our colleagues could not all be here, their engagement through the interactive process leading up to today has been very extensive, and we thank them for that high level of engagement. WTO Members posed almost 600 questions to us, and we have endeavoured to meet the highest standards of transparency in our responses.

Australia welcomes Argentina’s continued commitment to the multilateral trading system. We enjoy a close and productive relationship on many elements of the WTO’s agenda.

Australia welcomes this opportunity to comment on Myanmar's WTO Trade Policy Review. Myanmar is, of course, an original Member of the WTO and it joined in 1995.

Australia welcomes this Trade Policy Review – twenty years on from China’s accession – as an important opportunity to take stock of China’s contributions to the WTO and how it has aligned its trade policies to its WTO obligations.

Viet Nam’s economic growth over the past three decades is a great success story. Since reforms in the 1980s, it has evolved from a low-income, closed agricultural economy with heavy state involvement to a dynamic, mixed economy with a growing private sector. The country has ascended from being one of Asia’s poorest to middle income status, lifting 45 million people out of poverty. Viet Nam’s strong public health response to COVID-19 also allowed its economy to continue to grow despite the pandemic in 2020 – one of the few countries in the world to do so.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms economic rights for indigenous peoples. The interconnected nature of the global economy, however, means that these economic rights will not be realised unless Member States take collective action to eliminate trade and investment barriers, promote cross-border economic activity, and increase market access for indigenous businesses.