Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she plans to discuss a free-trade agreement today with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and is confident the two nations will complete a deal.
“I am committed to building Australia’s relationship with Korea,” Gillard said in a speech on Saturday in Seoul, according to a copy of the address on the prime minister’s Web site. “This is a partnership full of promise and potential.”
South Korea is Australia’s fourth-largest trading partner, a nation with a “highly complementary” economy and a consumer of its liquefied natural gas (LNG), Gillard said.
Korea Gas Corp is a partner in the US$16 billion Gladstone LNG project in Queensland state led by Santos Ltd, Australia’s third--largest oil producer, while Samsung -Electronics Co and Hyundai Motor Co have become “household names,” she said.
“Our trade links are intense and highly complementary,” Gillard said in her speech. “Australia’s strengths in raw materials, energy and services have complemented Korea’s strengths in mass production and heavy industry.”
Australia will contribute A$10 million (US$10.7 million) to South Korea’s Global Green Growth Institute, established by the government to support the development of environmental policies in developing countries, Gillard said.
Australia and Japan agreed to work more closely on developing sources of clean energy following Japan’s March 11 earthquake, tsunami and following nuclear crisis, and reaffirmed a commitment to introduce a free-trade agreement, Gillard said on Friday in Tokyo.
Meanwhile, Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said Australia needs to cut spending because there won’t be any repeat of the windfall tax revenue generated between 2004 and 2007 by the mining industry’s previous expansion.
“We shouldn’t expect to see a repeat of the rivers of gold that flowed into the government coffers” when an additional A$334 billion in tax revenue was generated, Swan said yesterday in his weekly economic notes.
“The revenues will still be there, but we shouldn’t expect to see” a similar surge, he said.
The strong Australian dollar and consumer caution after the global financial crisis are hurting parts of the economy, Swan said.
The Australian dollar reached US$1.0775 on Thursday, the strongest since it was freely floated in 1983. The currency’s gains, spurred by revenue from shipments of coal and iron ore to China, have hurt Australian tourism, manufacturing and education.
The March 11 disaster in Japan is forecast to cut commodity export revenue by A$2 billion, while floods and a cyclone in Queensland earlier this year will likely cost the economy A$9 billion, Swan said.
The budget is due to be presented to parliament on May 10. Gillard’s Labor Party lost its majority at the general election in August last year and needs the support of four non-party lawmakers to pass legislation in the lower house.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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