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MINISTER FOR TRADE AND INVESTMENT

The Hon Andrew Robb AO MP

Remarks to Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement
Ministerial Meeting Sydney, Australia
Saturday, 25 October 2014
ANDREW ROBB:
Could I say just before we start proceedings that I would like to extend our sympathy
and express solidarity with the people of Canada following the attack on the
Parliament there. It was a terrible attack on democracy and that is something I think
we agree with your Prime Minister that we will never bow to. And we would
appreciate very much Ed [Fast], one for you being here after the event and secondly
please also pass on our thoughts and wishes to your delegation and to the Prime
Minister and his colleagues.
We have got this meeting I think at a very important time. In so many parts of the
world there is a lot of geopolitical instability, weve got a lot of economic instability
and I do think this agreement is starting to take some real shape. In that way, I do
feel it is of such consequence; we are talking about 40 per cent of the worlds GDP
and a third of the worlds trade being involved in this agreement. And I do think it will
send a signal to so many other parts of the world about the priority of this region in
terms of trade and investment for a more seamless involvement for the trade of
goods and services, in terms of rules, mutual recognition, common sets of customs
arrangements, all of these things are going to increase the efficiency and the
opportunities for all of us.
So I must say from the reports that I have had back from my negotiators, who have
met this week with your negotiators, there does seem to be a real head of steam, I
think a lot of progress is being made. Clearly, I think we are working now to try and
conclude this agreement by the end of this year. Thats the sense I have got from the
progress made this week with our negotiators. We can lay down some decisions,
move things forward over the next two or three days and then our negotiators are
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going to have another session as you know to try and pull this thing together as
much as we can.
So I do think we are in a very important meeting over the next two or three days and
we are at a point where we are trying to make as many final decisions as we can and
bring this thing to a conclusion. And I think it will be an enormous fillip for all of our
countries and provide individually and collectively a lot more opportunities in the
years ahead.
Can I just say from a housekeeping point of view, before I hand over to Mike
[Froman] to take the meeting and chair it; we have bi-laterals for much of today,
another plenary at the end of it, but we do meet up for pre-dinner drinks at about
6.30pm and go for dinner at 7pm, again it will be a working dinner amongst
ourselves and I look forward to spending time with you in that sort of atmosphere.
Could I just show my gratitude to Ambassador Froman, Mike Froman, for agreeing to
again chair this session over the next two-an-a-half days. It is a fairly onerous task
given often the complexity of the issues and different sensitivities around the table,
all the usual things in negotiations and to do it with 12 countries just makes it 12
times harder and Mike you have shown a lot of leadership over the last year or so
and we are very grateful for that and we are very grateful for you agreeing again to
take the chair over the next couple of days and we look forward to making a lot of
progress under your leadership. Can I hand over to you for a couple of words? And
again thank everyone for joining us here in Sydney.
US Trade Representative Michael Froman:
Thank you very much, Andrew. And thank you for those kind words.
First and foremost, I would like to associate myself with your remarks about what
happened in Ottawa and express our deep sympathy and solidarity with Ed Fast,
your whole delegation, and the people of Canada -- were delighted that youre here,
were honored that youre here. And our thoughts are with your countrymen.
I also want to express our sympathy for the victims of the volcano in Mt. Ontake in
Japan, and to Minister Amari and his delegation and countrymen. Again, our deepest
sympathies.
Secondly, I want to thank Andrew Robb, his team, and the government and people
of Australia for hosting both the chief negotiator meeting in Canberra earlier this
week and this Ministerial. Everyone recognises how much work it takes to pull off
meetings like this and were enormously grateful to Australia for its hospitality and
leadership throughout this process.

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The last time we all got together in Singapore in May, we mapped out a work plan for
the summer and its been a very productive summer.
We have been in almost constant negotiations throughout this period with teams
meeting in Ottawa, Hanoi, and most recently Canberra.
Weve been meeting bilaterally, weve been meeting in small groups, and everyone
has put tremendous effort into resolving remaining issues.
Going into this weekend were enjoying a great deal of momentum and focus across
the board. Its up to us to seize that momentum and make sure that this meeting is
maximally productive.
The issues left at the end are often times the most challenging but now is the time to
start working through those and finding solutions. Weve got some work to do and
the table is set in a way that will allow us to make progress on these difficult,
remaining issues.
I want thank all of the teams that have been meeting over the last days and weeks
who have teed up this Ministerial to be a very productive Ministerial.
Thanks largely to their efforts, we now have in front of us an excellent opportunity to
resolve the outstanding issues where possible, to narrow our differences, and to tee
up these issues for our leaders as they see each other in the coming weeks in
various places around Asia.
We have a real opportunity here to make progress, significant progress, as we bring
TPP closer to a successful conclusion.
And we need to keep in mind what the end result is an agreement as Andrew Robb
said involving forty percent of the global economy, a third of global trade, expanding
opportunity, unlocking opportunity, for our workers, for our farmers, for our
businesses of all sizes and particularly small and medium sized businesses.
Its an effort that will further the integration of this very important region, the Asia
Pacific region, and very importantly it will be an agreement that will help set the rules
of the road for this region, and be a very important economic and strategic
opportunity.
It is very much within our grasp as Andrew said and I look forward to getting to work
with all of you to achieve that objective.