PRIME MINISTERI
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINIST'ER, THE HON~ P J KEATING, HP
DINNER IN HONOUR OF PRIME MINISTER MIYAZAWA
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, 30 APRIL 1993
( PLEASE CHECK AGAINSTr DELIVERY. EMBARGO 8.30 PM)
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you,
Prime Minister, to Australia.
I understand this is your fourth visit to our country.
We offer an especially warm welcome on this occasion
because you are the first head of government to visit
Australia since the March election.
This is fitting given the very close ties that have
developed between our two countries.
The Australia-Japan relationship is longstanding and
mature. It is based fundamentally on strong trade and economic
relations which serve our two countries very well.
But these days the Australia-Japan relationship goes well
beyond our economic links, important though they are.
By any standards, the quality of cooperation that has now
been achieved between our governments in regional and
international affairs is remarkable.
And the range of people-to-people contacts which flourish
between Australia and Japan attests to a high degree of
mutual interest and friendship.
All this is the more striking considering the different
racial, social, religious and cultural backgrounds of the
two countries.
Prime Minister, I appreciated very much the warm
jiospitality I received from you and your Government
during my visit to Japan last September.
I am delighted that so soon afterwards I have an
opportunity to receive you here in Canberra.
Though your visit has been short, I hope you have been
able to learn at first hand today something of our
current priorities and preoccupations.
Australia has achieved important progress over the past
decade in making our economy more internationally
oriented, more open, more competitive, and better able to
take advantage of the economic dynamism of East Asia.
But there is still more to do in this regard.
Last week I announced our goal of making our labour
market more flexible, by switching to a national system
of enterprise bargaining.
And this will help us to become more competitive, more
able to take our place in the region.
on that point, the Government is determined to encourage
Australia's closer integration with the region.
Australians know this is where our geography is and where
our concentration must be and that-. we need to outfit
ourselves properly to participate.
On that score, there Is also wide support among the
Australian public for us to define our national identity
more clearly and more confidently.
Earlier this week I announced the appointment of an
advisory committee which will examine options for making
Australia a republic without altering our existing
parliamentary system or Commonwealth-State arrangements.
I personally believe Australia will become a republic by
the centenary of our federation in 2001.
This, as I say, will help Australia's relations with the
region by demonstrating that we are standing on our own
feet both practically and psychologically.
Prime Minister,' I was pleased that today we were able to
carry forward the very productive dialogue we started
last September on regional and international affairs.
As we address a very fluid outlook in the Asia-Pacific
region, Australia and Japan share many important
interests and perspectives.
Neither of us belongs to a trading bloc, and we each
depend vitally on the maintenance of an open and
non-discriminatory trading system-
17)*-1rt7 K 77 , OT CC.-ir4W-jOC-v-73
Both of us have important security and economic
relationships with the United States and we both strongly
support the long-term engagement of the United States in
the Western Pacific.
I listened today carefully to your account of your recent
meeting with President Clinton and the outlook for Japan-
US trade relations.
As a friend of both Japan and the United Staten,
Australia respects the difficulty and complexity of some
of the issues that you are now grappling with in the
Japan-US economic relationship.
We have been heartened by your assurance today that Japan
will not engage in managed trade with the United States.
This is an important assurance.
The outlook for the international trade envirornent is
uncertain and troubled.
We have to do all we can to remove that uncertainty.
In that sense, it is imperative that political leadership
be applied by all the main players to restore momentum
towards a successful conclusion of the6 Uruguay Round of
multilateral trade negotiations.
Similarly, within the Asia-Pacific region, we face a
decisive testing period for th e APEC forum.
To demonstrate the usefulness of APEC as a force for
trade liberalisation and facilitation, it is important to
achieve concrete results at the Seattle ministerial
meeting in November..
As I explained in a speech on 8 February, I believe we
should seek as our goal an integrated market which
includes Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea,
North America, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the ASEAN
countries a market of 2 billion people producing half
the world's output, bound together with harmonised trade
rules, harmonised investment rules, harmonised standards
and certification, and an agreed way of settling disputes
between members.
As we move along the path towards this goal, there may
come a point where we decide to use the APEC acronym to
stand for both the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
prneAn as well as the Asia-Pacific Eooi m~ i~
To succeed, such a community must be founded on respect
for the cultural diversity of the Asia-Pacific region and
the different levels of development of member economies.
Our own experience, the Australia-Japan bilateral
experience, demonstrates that cultural differences are no
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barrier to successful cooperation provided it is based on
shared interests.
As Australia and Japan have found, successful cooperation
leads to trust and mutual confidence.
Because of our shared interests and perspectives,
Australia and Japan are well placed to work together in
promoting the concept of an Asia-Pacific Economic
Community based on principles of openness, nondiscrimination
and practical cooperation.
This is an Important way in which we can use the strength
of the Australia-Japan partnership to promote open
regionalism In the Asia-Pacific.
Prime minister, let me conclude by saying how much I have
valued your visit and our discussions today, and again
how pleased I am to see you in Australia,
I now invite the Leader of the Opposition, Dr Hewson, to
join me in welcoming you and your delegation.