Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08CANBERRA1207
2008-12-02 07:05:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Canberra
Cable title:
AUSTRALIA SHARES CONCERNS ON PROTECTIONISM
how-toVZCZCXYZ0005 PP RUEHWEB DE RUEHBY #1207 3370705 ZNY CCCCC ZZH P 020705Z DEC 08 FM AMEMBASSY CANBERRA TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0603 INFO RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 0402 RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 9269 RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN PRIORITY 1040 RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 0473 RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 0178 RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA PRIORITY 5304 RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1930 RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO PRIORITY 0302 RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PRIORITY 1514 RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 1131 RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 2242 RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1485 RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 0480 RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 0529 RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 1034 RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL PRIORITY 9628 RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 3311 RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 1971 RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0727
C O N F I D E N T I A L CANBERRA 001207
SIPDIS
STATE PLEASE PASS USTR; STATE FOR EEB/TPP/MTAA B NAFZIGER
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/02/2018
TAGS: EFIN ETRD PREL ECON WTRO AS
SUBJECT: AUSTRALIA SHARES CONCERNS ON PROTECTIONISM
REF: STATE 125609
Classified By: ACTING ECON COUNS W ALBRIGHT REASONS 1.4 B, D
C O N F I D E N T I A L CANBERRA 001207
SIPDIS
STATE PLEASE PASS USTR; STATE FOR EEB/TPP/MTAA B NAFZIGER
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/02/2018
TAGS: EFIN ETRD PREL ECON WTRO AS
SUBJECT: AUSTRALIA SHARES CONCERNS ON PROTECTIONISM
REF: STATE 125609
Classified By: ACTING ECON COUNS W ALBRIGHT REASONS 1.4 B, D
¶1. (C) GOA shares US concerns about protectionism in some
G20 members. Australia has already made approaches in
several G20 capitals, and is ready to cooperate closely with
US. DFAT said the UK should be added to the list of
countries taking protectionist steps because of how it has
raised its air passenger duty. End summary.
¶2. (C) Econoff made reftel demarche on Tim Yeend, First
Assistant Secretary for Trade Negotiations at the Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Yeend was joined by
Paul Myler, Assistant Secretary for DFAT's newly-created
International Financial Crisis Taskforce, and Cathy Raper,
Assistant Secretary of the Trade Commitments Branch. Yeend
agreed with the points contained in reftel nonpaper,
including the need to cooperate to deliver this message
warning against protectionism. He said that the week of
November 21, DFAT had sent in their embassies in Moscow,
Buenos Aires, and Brasilia regarding the GOA's concerns about
protectionist moves by those governments. As Yeend said,
"the responses were not at all encouraging." Russia in
particular seemed to "dodge" the issue, but nevertheless it
was good to reinforce the point with them. Yeend said Brazil
seemed to be in a balancing act between what they know is the
right action and being supportive of Argentina; he said they
seemed to be relying on Paraguay and Uruguay to vote down the
move to raise some Mercosur external tariffs. Yeend said
concerns about Indonesia were raised during the
Australia-Indonesia Ministerial Forum in November, more over
concerns about licensing than pharmaceuticals.
¶3. (SBU) Yeend said we should "add the UK" to the list of
countries taking protectionist measures, criticizing the
recent move by the United Kingdom to hike its air passenger
duty on flights into the UK. He called it a "real WTO issue"
in that it is a discriminatory tax not placed on domestic
flights and being more expensive for longer flights (like
those from Australia).
¶4. (SBU) Comment: Australia's strong support is
unsurprising. The GOA is ready to cooperate on further
actions to try to stem protectionist sentiment, should that
be required. End comment.
MCCALLUM