Australian wine exporter targeting ASEAN countries

SOUTH Australian exporters face new opportunities because new relaxed trade rules will make their products cheaper in Asia, the Federal Government says.

With Rudd Government ministers in Adelaide today for a Community Cabinet meeting, Trade Minister Simon Crean has released new figures suggesting this state stands to benefit from changes which came in on January 1, 2010, under the ASEAN Australia New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA).

"This is a great opportunity and I urge South Australian exporters to examine the possibilities in the 10 ASEAN countries that are home to 600 million people," Mr Crean told The Advertiser.

These changes include a more than halving of the 7 per cent import tariff on over $3 million worth of annual wine sales to the Philippines, as well as an immediate removal of the 3 per cent tariff on copper products.

Wheat and pasta stand to gain also with the removal by 2016 of a 5 per cent tariff on more than $9 million in annual wheat sales to Vietnam and phased reductions of other tariffs of up to 40 per cent in Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

"Asia is the fastest-growing region in the world with a rising middle class that is hungry for quality products and services like those from South Australia," Mr Crean said.

The upbeat comments may help lift the flagging spirits of SA exporters after the state lagged behind the big commodity export states of WA and Queensland in recent trade performance because demand for wine and cars fell away during the global financial crisis.

Last night in Hobart, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd used the second of a series of landmark speeches leading up to Australia Day to lay out some of the principles driving Government policy.

He criticised the previous Howard government for spending too freely during the height of a sustained resources boom.