PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH AND INTERVIEW WITH THE PRIME MINISTER,
THE HON P J KEATING, M. P.
GEELONG WOOL COMBING PLANT OPENING, CORIO, VIC
FRIDAY 10 DECEMBER, 1993
( Opening Remarks Speech):
I am very delighted to be here on this occasion. I think this says a great deal
about the change which is taking place In Australia, Indeed, In just this last
couple of days you can see the threads of the potential of the nineties coming
together.... with a conclusion of the GATT Round drawing to a close the
benefits of which, as you know, Australia has put the Cairns group together and
fought within the GATT now for seven years. And this agreement looks likely to
be conservatively worth about two and a half billion to Australia, which will make
a tremendous amount of difference not just In agriculture but In the trade In
goods and services. We have seen, yesterday, news of -further employment
growth In the economy leading now to 100,000 new jobs In three months which
means the economy is ticking away We had confirmation just a week or two
ago of the economy growing at about three and quarter percent and a week
before that with Inflation around two percent.
These are good things and we are seeing plants like this being developed in the
wake of Australia's competitiveness which has now been with us for the better
part of about six or seven years. So, this is a very great change and one which,
I think, these various portents hold for the 1 990s and for Australia taking Its
place more fully as a trading entity In the world
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( Doorstop Interview):
J: Prime Minister, have you had any response from the United States about
your concerns about the Blair House agreement?
PM: Well, we will be pursuing the m arket access questions right up until the
last moment but I think we have to record that the seven years of
organlsation and lobbying which Australia has organised through the
Cairns Group has now paid substantial dividends for us because we have
kept the pressure on the system and we are going to get an agreement
under the GATT and that agreement will conservatively be worth two
and a half billion dollars to Australia. That's the bulk of It. And its a case
now of understanding that with the large part of the bulk of It In place
we're now chasing down the last of the market access questions and we'll
do that right up until the agreement Is concluded.
J: What was the detail of the letter?
PM: Well, just saying that we'll still be pressing for access on particular
commodities but recording, with the President, our pleasure with the
United States' position to maintain the thrust of the Blair House
agreement, the Blair House Accord between the Government of the
United States and the European Community. That's what we wanted
most preserved. And the substance of that has been preserved and so
we're encouraging the President to complete the round, or have pressure
on to complete the round, also saying that In terms of some of the market
access questions we'd like to pursue these so that Australia walks away
with the best possible deal we can get.
J: ( naudible).. angry that it's been watered down?
PM: The Australian media wants to be permanently angry. What about being
permanently happy for a change? And that Is to say that we've got an
outcome that we could not have envisaged seven years not even
have envisaged seven years ago. At least a two and a half billion dollar
benefit to Australia; most of that agricultural change that Is there Is
because of this government. This government has built the structure to
develop a real place In the negotiations of an International GATT Round.
And we're now starting to draw some of the success from that in the
closing days of the Uruguay Rou nd. So, for Australia it's going to be a tip
top outcome. And if you take a plant like this plant here this plant will
now feed its product into a world textile Industry which Is no longer
constrained by the multi-fibre agreement, it's a two hundred billion dollar
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Industry and Wts going to be opened up to us, These are the sort of
opportunities which the GATT can produce which Australia has gone for
from the first moment It started In 1986.
J: If GATT was to go ahead with the amended Blair House Agreement In
place would It still be a tip top agreement?
PM: Let me just make a more general point because I haven't got all day here
I think what the GATs going to do Is underwrite a real pick-up in
confidence In the world and In Austraia. And that's coming as we confirm
that the Australian economy Is growing at three and a half percent, as we
saw yesterday the creation of 100,000 jobs In three months, as we saw
two weeks ago Inflation at around two percent. Australia is really well
poised to ship products competitively into the world as It renews Its own
economic recovery. And so, we're now a better set-up than perhaps
we've been In the last 20 or 30 years probably since the war to
participate In world trade as a competitive, Innovative nation and doing it
in a way which also brings the. regions of Australia Into It, like Geelong
and other regional parts of the country.
J: ( inaudible)... on rice, what would you consider a good outcome?
PM: I'm not here to give you a blow by blow, commodity by commodity answer
to that... simply to say that I was at the 1986 OECD meeting where the
Europeans were resisting putting agriculture Into the OECD communique.
Australia got It into the communique, we got It onto the G7 Summit In
Tokyo which was presided over by President Reagan, and a
consequence of that Is that agriculture went Into the round. And not just
agriculture, all the other things Australia Is Interested In, trade In services
and International property rights. So, we will have set up in a background
In trade that which we have never had before, and a large part of that
structure has been put there by Australia. Anid that's why I think the
Australian community should understand that a very big thing Is
happening here, and, I think, a very great achievement and one that I
hope will stand our economy in good stead for the next half century.
J: Can I ask a question about South Australia? What chance for Labor?
PM: In ele ctions you have to wait and see, as we found In March 1993. 1
notice there Is very demure punting by the media these days once
bitten, twice shy and all I say Is, that's a good policy.
Ends.