E&OE..................
Well thank you very Mark, to all the other special guests, to Cathy Freeman, to Ross Adler the Chairman of Austrade, Mr Peter O'Byrne, my other parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
This is an occasion to honour people, who through their effort in relation to exports, contribute so much to the wealth and the well being of our country. This has been quite a remarkable year for the cause of Australian exports. The highlight has undoubtably been the fact that over the past year Australia has signed the largest ever export contract in this nation's history and that was the 25-year, $25 billion liquid natural gas contract signed with the Chinese Consortium only a few weeks ago and negotiated over many years. And it was very much a triumph of what could be called the team Australia approach. It was an effort that brought together not only the companies as the bidders and the suppliers, but it also involved the active support of Austrade, the active support of the Federal Government, the active support of the Western Australian Government and the active involvement and support of so many people.
And the fact that in this one year we have been able to sign that huge contract, the biggest ever in our history, with the Peoples Republic of China, but also courtesy of the prodigious, negotiating effort of Mark Vaile as our Trade Minister, we were able to announce only two weeks ago, the beginning of the process whereby we will try to negotiate a free trade agreement with the United States - the largest economy in the world and in fact, the largest economy the world has ever seen. Those two events illustrate a very important message about this country's trade linkages and that is that we are a nation that will export to any who will buy. We are a nation that has not put all of our trade or export eggs in the one basket, but we are a nation that simultaneously can entertain negotiating a free trade agreement with the United States and also signed that huge deal with the Peoples Republic of China. It repudiates suggestions that in some way in endeavouring to negotiate a free trade agreement with the United States in some way prevents our capacity to trade effectively and trade increasingly with the nations of the Asian region. The reality is that a country such as Australia must simultaneously pursue bilateral trading opportunities, as well as continue to push the case for freeer and more open multilateral trade through the World Trade Organisation. And I want to take this opportunity at this dinner to thank my Minister, Mark Vaile, for the tremendous work that he has done as the principal spokesman and Minister for the Government aiding the cause of Australia's exporters and aiding and promoting the cause of Australian trade.
When it comes to exporting, Australia is in every sense of the expression a citizen of the world. Our major trading partners, many of them are to be found in the Asian Pacific region. And Japan's still our greatest export destination and a country which is of enormous significance to this country when it comes to exports. To Korea - a wonderful market and the trust and confidence that exists between Korea and so many Australian exporters would be well known to people in this room. China - a market that has more than doubled in the last five years, our third greatest trading partner and a country of great, indeed limitless, commercial and trading opportunities. But that's not the only part of the picture. We're also a nation that faced in 1997 a huge challenge when there was an economic downturn in the Asian Pacific region and the fact that we were able to diversify our exports away from contracting markets in the Asian region, to expanding a new market in Europe in North America, drove home the point that a nation such as Australia must always seek markets in every part of the world. And the flexibility of the Australian economy, and particularly the flexibility of the Australian dollar, meant that we were able to shift those markets. The fact that we have a highly competitive exchange rate is a very important element in our trading and our exporting success. And the fact that we are now enjoying the benefits of 15 to 20 years of cumulative, domestic, economic change and reform is a lesson that should not be lost on any person in this room.
Australia's economy is strong, Australia's economy is outperforming the economies of most other nations because we've had the courage as a nation and as a people to change and reform our economy in the past, to sweep away restrictions and barriers that have held us back, to reform our industrial relations system, to reform the Australian waterfront - which was a national joke until the problem of reform was tackled by Peter Reith on behalf of the Government in 1998. And collectively, when you look at what this economy has achieved, the reforms we have undertaken, it is a reminder to all of us of the fundamental importance of economic reform and a reminder that the process of economic reform never ends.
We are about to embark upon an effort through the World Trade Organisation to secure a more open, multilateral trading environment. Mark Vaile hosted a very important mini ministerial summit in Sydney several weeks ago that brought together the trade ministers of all the major contributors to what will need to be a very positive outcome for the latest World Trade Organisation round. It is necessary that we get agriculture on the negotiating table. It is necessary for the credibility of the World Trade Organisation that the current Doha round be successful. We can't afford another failure like the fiasco that occurred in Seattle several years ago. And in order for the next round to be successful, it will require the strong involvement and commitment of the major trade constalations of the world. It will need the requirement and require the commitment obviously of the United States. And the fact that the special trade representative, Bob Zoellick, was present in Sydney that the ministerial meeting was extremely encouraging and the commitments he made on behalf of the Bush Administration were equally encouraging.
It will require a change of heart on behalf the European Union. It will require the European Union to be willing to put on the table the restrictive trade barriers of that block, which have locked so many exports out of Europe, not only from Australia but also from the developing countries of the world. It will also require a commitment from a nation the size of Japan and when it comes to agricultural subsidy, it's worth all of us remembering that that total value of subsidies from Australia to her farmers and primary producers is four per cent of total output. In the United States it is 22 per cent. In the European Union it 35 per cent and in Japan it is 59 per cent. And those four figures illustrate the burden carried by Australian farmers who must export in order to survive and who, as we're very conscious of at the present time, carry the additional burden of the periodic ravages of the drought.
So we achieved a lot as we look over the last year. We've achieved the great breakthrough of the gas contract with China - a wonderful symbol of the strong bilateral relationship between Australia and China, in this the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries. We have begun the process of negotiating a free trade agreement with the United States. We have seen the Australian economy continue to outperform most other economies. We have continued to deride the benefits of cumulative economic change and economic reform.
And I want to conclude my remarks tonight by thanking the exporters of Australia for the contribution that you are making to our national strength, and to our national, and our national well being. We quite rightly honour the men and women of the sporting field such as Cathy Freeman, who brings such great credit and lustre to our nation and our nation's name around the world. But we should equally honour the men and women who go out and win competitive races in the area of exports. That Liquid Natural Gas Consortium won a very competitive race, they had many handicaps, but they won because of their persistence and their reliability. And that's a story that is replicated all around Australia in so many areas. The fact that now 40 per cent of our exports are in the service sector and in manufacturing is an illustration of just how much our export base has diversified over the years. And the men and women here tonight represent that great achievement.
And on behalf of all of your fellow Australians, can I thank you for the contribution that you have made. Can I in advance congratulate those who are successful in so far as the awards are concerned and can all of us together look back on a year, which in the area of exports and trade, has been a highly successful one and is another demonstration that no matter what the field, no matter what the contest, no matter how hard the competition is, that if Australians get down to it and apply themselves there's nobody that they can't defeat. Thank you.
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