On 5 September, the first meeting of the Argentina-Australia Bilateral Consultations body was held in Buenos Aires. For Argentina, the meeting was chaired by the Undersecretary for Foreign Relations, Gustavo Zlauvinen, and for Australia, by the Deputy Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Penny Williams.
During the meeting, the officials underscored the excellent state of bilateral relations and agreed to continue fostering high-level exchanges and promoting mutual trade missions.
They also explored new possibilities for cooperation in matters such as nuclear energy, space, the Antarctic, gender equality, taxes, sports and education. In this regard, they underscored the reliability of the Open Pool Australian Lightwater (OPAL) reactor, which was designed and built by the Argentine company INVAP ten years ago, the year 2016 having marked the tenth anniversary of OPAL's commissioning in Australia. The OPAL contract amounted to over USD 180 million, representing the largest turnkey technology export in Argentine history.
In addition, while underscoring the growth of bilateral trade during the first half of this year (29% more than in the first half of 2016) and identifying new value-added products that may access both markets, they also noted that such growth does not reflect the great potential for trade between the two nations.
As regards agri-industry, the officials analyzed the steps to follow in the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation in Agriculture, Cattle Breeding and Fisheries signed in 2015 between the Ministry of Agri-industry and Australia's Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, especially with respect to animal identification and herbicide resistance.
Furthermore, they reviewed the existing investments in the two countries and agreed to promote them and foster the creation of new opportunities in this regard. In particular, they underscored the ample opportunities that exist in Argentina's mining sector, which has attracted the interest of Australian companies, which are already working to make investments.
The officials also stressed the importance of fostering an increase in the exchange of students, teachers and researchers and the promotion of the work and holidays programme, as well as the interest in increasing tourism, in respect of which they underscored the role of air links and the need to explore possibilities for facilitating visa applications and for the exchange of information, among other actions.
In addition, they referred to their shared views on several items on the multilateral agenda and to Australia's cooperation in organizing the Argentine G20 Presidency in 2018. Furthermore, Deputy Secretary Williams reiterated Australia's full support for Argentina's accession to the OECD.
The Deputy Secretaries ratified Argentina and Australia's commitment to work towards a positive outcome at the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC11), reaffirming the importance of a rules-based, open and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system.
They also underscored the shared interest in moving forward with agricultural negotiations and the removal of fisheries subsidies (in agreement with United Nations 2030 Agenda), as the two countries are members of the Cairns Group and "Friends of Fish". Finally, they underscored the importance of including other issues on the multilateral trade agenda, such as e-commerce, investment facilitation, and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
Press release No. 371/17
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