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The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard (pictured) is currently in the USA and amongst other issues, has been pushing the USA to implement reform in agricultural trade. Australia is urging the US to follow through on the undertakings recently given by President George Bush to remove US farm subsidies. As well, the Prime Minister has spoken at length on the USA/Australia Free Trade Agreement. In his speech to the American Australian Association of the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC on 18 July, Mr Howard said that “the Free Trade Agreement represents an expression of optimism about the future of that (USA and Australia) relationship. Of course it didn’t provide the two sides with everything they wanted, but what it has done and what the subsequent passage of the E-3 visa legislation, which I particularly want to express my thanks to the American Congress for, what it’s done is to say to the rest of the world that there is a special character to this relationship. And as our economy and yours becomes more enmeshed as the years go by, particularly in the service sector, people will look back on the passage of this Free Trade Agreement and remark at what a remarkable, far-sighted contribution it’s made to relations between the two countries.”
“But that Free Trade Agreement will only be fully exploited and fully developed if the economies of our two countries continue to grow, and if successive governments in Australia and the United States continue to rise to the challenge of economic reform. The Australian economy is now enjoying its fifteenth year of expansion. That hasn’t happened by accident. It’s happened because over the years governments of both political persuasions in Australia, and I have never been reluctant to give credit to former governments in Australia for some of the reforms carried out in the 1980’s, because governments of both political persuasions in Australia have undertaken far-reaching and significant economic reforms. Tariff reform; getting the budget back into balance and surplus; which has been a hallmark of the work carried out by my government, particularly the contribution that my Treasurer, Peter Costello, has made to that process; labour market reform, and I will return to that again in a moment; fundamental taxation reform some five years ago; and, of course, importantly, financial deregulation carried out by the former government, but strongly supported by the then coalition opposition.” To read the Prime Minister's full address click here.
For information on this article, or on any other aspect of the Australian economy or business opportunities available, please email me. David
david.taylor@agarcarlyon.com
The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard (pictured) is currently in the USA and amongst other issues, has been pushing the USA to implement reform in agricultural trade. 
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