Australia — Next stage of industry consultation on US Defence Trade Treaty

Min­is­ter for Defence Materiel Jason Clare today kicked off in the next stage of indus­try con­sul­ta­tion on the Aus­tralia-Unit­ed States Defence Trade Coop­er­a­tion Treaty.

The sec­ond round of con­sul­ta­tion is being done through the Joint Defence and Indus­try Advi­so­ry Pan­el – which includes experts from major Aus­tralian Defence com­pa­nies and small-to-medi­um busi­ness­es and is chaired by Mr Ken Pea­cock AM.

The Aus­tralia-Unit­ed States Defence Trade Coop­er­a­tion Treaty was signed in Syd­ney on 5 Sep­tem­ber 2007. The US Con­gress passed imple­ment­ing leg­is­la­tion on 28 Sep­tem­ber 2010, and the Treaty was rat­i­fied by the US Sen­ate on 29 Sep­tem­ber 2010. Leg­is­la­tion is required to be passed in Aus­tralia before the Treaty enters in to force.

Once imple­ment­ed, it will cre­ate a frame­work for trade between Aus­tralia and the US in cer­tain defence materiel and tech­nol­o­gy with­out the need for export licences. The first round of con­sul­ta­tion occurred in Decem­ber 2010, and includ­ed meet­ings with indus­try in eight cap­i­tal cities and region­al centres.

This is the sec­ond round. The Pan­el will advise Gov­ern­ment on the impact of the Treaty on Aus­tralian com­pa­nies, and pro­vide a forum for input by indus­try experts to the devel­op­ment of the reg­u­la­tions nec­es­sary to imple­ment the Treaty.

In the next few months, an expo­sure draft of the Defence Trade Con­trols Bill will be released for broad­er con­sul­ta­tion with defence indus­try and acad­e­mia. Fol­low­ing this, leg­is­la­tion will be intro­duced into Par­lia­ment lat­er this year.

Mr Clare said the Trade Coop­er­a­tion Treaty could pro­vide enor­mous oppor­tu­ni­ty for Aus­tralian indus­try. “It has the poten­tial to reduce delays caused by export con­trol reg­u­la­tions, improve deliv­ery times, improve sus­tain­ment and give Aus­tralian com­pa­nies bet­ter access to US con­tracts,” Mr Clare said.

Media con­tact: Kore­na Flana­gan – 02 6277 7620 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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