In his first visit to Perth since taking up the position in August, the US Ambassador to Australia said last week that it was imperative that negotiations relating to agriculture, which were unsuccessful during the Doha round, be revived.
In his first visit to Perth since taking up the position in August, the US Ambassador to Australia said last week that it was imperative that negotiations relating to agriculture, which were unsuccessful during the Doha round, be revived.
Ambassador Robert McCallum Jr said it was important to the US and Australia that they make every effort to revive discussions relating to market access, issues concerning internal supports and issues concerning state entities that were involved in international agricultural trading.
However he deflected questions relating to the US benefiting from the AWB scandal which had resulted in them securing 70 per cent of Iraq’s wheat market.
“I don’t think that properly reflects the competitive market that exists for agricultural products,” he said.
“I think the solution for those sort of issues is reviving the discussions among multilateral nations within the Doha round context.
“Those statistics [relating to Iraq] are what they are. But they’re not necessarily to be viewed in anything other than the broader context of an overall attempt by multiple nations to increase access to markets to reduce as much as possible the internal supports of various nations, and to provide open competition in the market-place that will provide benefits to all the nations involved.”
Ambassador McCallum said US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and US Trade Representative Ambassador Susan Schwab would both attend the 20th anniversary of the Cairns Group meeting in late September in an attempt to revive discussions on issues raised in the Doha round.
Ambassador McCallum said he spoke to Premier Alan Carpenter during his visit regarding the export of LNG to the US, and prior to arriving in Australia he had discussed the Gorgon gas project off Barrow Island with Chevron representatives.
“The premier did mention that contacts had been made between WA and the state of California, WA and the federal government regarding infrastructure on the Californian coast,” he said.
However, he said issues relating to the state government securing 20 per cent of gas reserves for use domestically were not raised.
“Chevron’s relationship with the state government is only really a matter between the government and that particular company,” he said.
“As I understand it there has been no resolution of any issues relating to that so I am not really in a position to speculate.”
In regards to the uranium debate, Ambassador McCallum said he supported Australian exports of uranium to China, and that the anti-uranium mining policy put forward by the WA government was an internal matter for the country to determine.
Australia represents Ambassador McCallum’s first diplomatic post.
