- Home
- About us
- Visas and migration
- Travelling to Australia
- Services for Australians
- Doing business with Australia
- Study in Australia
- Media
- About Australia
- Australia- Canada relationship
- Events
FROM HAVANA TO DOHA –
60 YEARS OF THE MULTILATERAL TRADE SYSTEM
Australia was committed to finding a global solution and achieving further gains in the global multilateral trading system through the Doha Round trade negotiations - securing an outcome to which was the Australian Government's highest trade policy priority.
With New Year's Day 2008 marking 60 years since the creation of the world’s multilateral trading system, Australia’s Trade Minister, Mr. Simon Crean, said that on January 1, 1948, 23 countries had found common ground on a set of rules to govern international trade in the post World War II era.
From that date, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) entered into force - an agreement which ultimately led to the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.
Mr. Crean said that in 1948, the Australian Government under the then Prime Minister, Ben Chifley, was one of those 23 founding GATT members and since then, Australia has been a long-time supporter of the multilateral trading system.
“I am proud to be a successor to those early visionaries, who had the wisdom to recognise the benefits to Australia of a rules-based multilateral system founded on the principles of non-discrimination,” he said.
“When the GATT was established, Australia had only a narrow export base and was largely dependent on the United Kingdom market. Since that time, Australia's export base has diversified considerably, as have its export markets.”
“Those changes mirror the development of the multilateral trading system itself, which has grown from 23 members in 1948 to over 150 members today and whose rules have broadened and deepened to now cover services as well as goods,” he said.
Mr. Crean said that he was committed to achieving further improvements in the multilateral trading system through the Doha negotiations.
“I am under no illusion about the difficulty of making progress in multilateral talks, but it is essential that we find a global solution. This is the best way of sharing the benefits of liberalisation as broadly as possible.
“Achieving an outcome to the Doha Round which strengthens existing trade rules and further lowers existing barriers to trade is the Australian Government's highest trade policy priority.”
Canberra
03 January 2008