PRIME-MI NISTER
fTANSCIPT OF Pu~ ss q. OMPFENCEr HOTEL SKfILLA r XOkEA
JANUARY 1989
u~ o E -PRooF ONLY
JOURNALiST: Trhere ' s so much emphasis beten on business and
00111aferce. Now did those talks go last night with the
business leaders that you met here? What chance does
AusBtral~ ia have of getting into the act?
L'-14: A very signiricant chance indeed. Thero was, I think,
aim) lqst ail the businesswen with whomn I spoke, thore wras
considerable optimism 1. an~ ing fromi our agricultural, rural
products like beef, there s ~ a considerable deqrse of optimism
in re~ gard to beef, and our mineral products, iron ore atnd
c~ oal., in both those aseas, optimism. Goinq through to
manufactured products, the solar heatinq peopie there who runi
a contract for the Olympic village have now told me last
niqht , that they are in receipt oi another big contract which
gives-thoin considerable optimism for the future. So vie * have
this Pisential combination of businessmen who are imaginative
andjyressive in an acceptable way, who are out there finding
niches i. n the sense of manufactured goods and in terms of
'. asic maiterials, providing substance for the development of
the )( oroan economy. So we have the businessmen dointg that
anid on our si~ de a Government at the political level, and the
bureaucratic level doing everything we can t6 create the
enviuonnent in which Australian businessman are going to be
able to get the benefit and the Australian economy is going
to qet the benefit of the stronq qrowth in the Koreai
econow~ y. Also there've been discussions between the
UF LPresident and mayself already today about anooureqing Xoreai
investment in Australia. So all together I'm very pleased
about the environment that exists betweenuu a t the political
lQee. I'm certainly indebted to the Australian bunihessmen
who are go'ing out and doing what they need to do, that is
fkndinq markets for an increasingly diversified range of
Australian products.
JO) URNALIST: Do you think the Korean government is moving
fact enough in terms of cutting its tariff levels and quota
rest r. ct lons?
VN4: There have been significant reductions but they've been
comewhxat specific. You stll-have the situatiLon where. there
are specialk taxes and regulations in certain areas which make
acoess difficult. Those things I'll be talking about in some
more detail this afternoon when I have the meoting with the
range of oconomic mirilatars. May I say on this, one
devel~ opmient that cameo out of my meeting with the President
this morning and thatL is that you know that he established
2
PM ( cent) the Presidential Commission on Economic
Restructuring and that is addressing the issues of
liberalization and increasing access. I invited through the
President the members of the Commission to come to Australia.
1 thought that would be a good idea. May I say I'm very
pleased to say that the President accepted that with pleasure
and indicated that he'll request--the members of that
Commission to come to Australia. So that will give us a'very
specific opportunity of discussing these issues directly with
those who'll be making the recommendations as to what should
be happening here in Korea.
JOURNALIST: Have you received a satisfactory explanation for
the bungle that led to your delayed departure yesterday?
PM: Do you know what? I'm that much more interested and got
my priorities that much more sorted out than some people that
haven't given it another thought. I'm sure that some of my
bureaucrats have though.
JOURNALIST: Senator Button said yesterday that this region
needed to band together more to combat the strength of other
trading blocks. How do you see that happening?
PM: i've already had some discussions with the President
this morning. I would rather address that in a little bit
more detail tomorrow if you don't mind because I'm going to
be referring to the issue in an address I'm going to be
making tomorrow here. I can say that I've had some
discussions, some very constructive discussions with the
President on that point. But I'll have a little bit more to
say about that tomorrow.
JOURNALIST:. That involves a formal proposal?
PM: Tomorrow.
JOURNALIST: Did you discuss North Korea today?
PM: Yes, I had long discussions with the President about
that and I think it's fair to say that the President takes
the view that there are pleasing signs of the opportunities
for closer relations but that this is something which is
going to require a lot of patience and time. There's a lot
of accumulated doubts, grievances, suspicions and the
important thing however is that this President, this.
administration is commited to the process of increasing
dialogue and cooperation and coexistence with the North.
When he was with me in Canberra he said that he would welcome
Australian initiatives of opening up their relations with the
North. We have done that since I met with him in November
and I was able to report. to him on those initiatives that
we've taken both in North Korea and in some discussions that
took place in China. We of course kept the government here
informed of those developments at all times and we've
indicated that we'll continue to do that, keep them informed.
3
PM ( oont) Of course in our discussions with the North there
will be a conditionality about it and that in that to the
extent that we want to help to open up the relationship with
the North, the speed with which we can do that will in some
sense obviously be a function of the way in which the North
is cooperating with the South in facilitating the discussions
for resolving the impasse that has existed for oo long
between them.
ends
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