Australia/USA — Defence Trade Cooperation Treaty – Industry Consultation

Defence will begin con­sul­ta­tion with indus­try on the imple­men­ta­tion of the his­toric Defence Trade Coop­er­a­tion Treaty with the Unit­ed States on Wednes­day 1 Decem­ber. The Treaty will be a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for Aus­tralian indus­try to increase trade in defence prod­ucts and tech­nol­o­gy with Unit­ed States indus­try, and will great­ly assist the Aus­tralian Defence Force in devel­op­ing its tech­no­log­i­cal and capa­bil­i­ty edge into the 21st Cen­tu­ry.

The Gov­ern­ment will intro­duce leg­is­la­tion into the Par­lia­ment in the new year to imple­ment the Treaty. This leg­is­la­tion will also include pro­pos­als to strength­en the cur­rent sys­tem of Defence export controls. 

Defence con­sul­ta­tion with indus­try on the Treaty imple­men­ta­tion will occur in three stages over the next 12 months. This process will enable indus­try to pro­vide max­i­mum feed­back to Gov­ern­ment on how the Treaty imple­men­ta­tion will affect their organ­i­sa­tions and inter­nal process­es. Phase one con­sul­ta­tion will inform indus­try of the expect­ed pol­i­cy and admin­is­tra­tive changes aris­ing from the imple­men­ta­tion of the Treaty. Phas­es two and three will allow Aus­tralian indus­try to com­ment on and shape the final imple­men­ta­tion of the Treaty in late 2011. Phase one begins on 1 Decem­ber with a pub­lic meet­ing at Olims Hotel in Can­ber­ra. Fur­ther pub­lic meet­ings will be held in Perth, Syd­ney, Mel­bourne, Bris­bane, Ade­laide, Hobart, Dar­win, Townsville and New­cas­tle in ear­ly Decem­ber. This con­sul­ta­tion phase will also seek industry’s views on pro­posed changes to Australia’s Defence export con­trols. These changes will fur­ther strength­en Australia’s export con­trols and sup­port region­al secu­ri­ty. Defence is also pleased to announce the appoint­ment of Mr Ken Pea­cock AM, to facil­i­tate indus­try con­sul­ta­tion. The appoint­ment of Mr Pea­cock, a senior and respect­ed defence indus­try rep­re­sen­ta­tive, demon­strates Defence’s com­mit­ment to work­ing close­ly with indus­try on these issues. Mr Pea­cock will ensure that Defence lis­tens to industry’s con­cerns and works coop­er­a­tive­ly with industry. 

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

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