Australia-US Defence Trade Cooperation Treaty

Aus­tralia Wel­comes US Senate’s Agree­ment to Rat­i­fy Aus­tralia-US Defence Trade Coop­er­a­tion Treaty
Aus­tralia wel­comes the US Senate’s agree­ment to rat­i­fy the Aus­tralia-Unit­ed States Defence Trade Coop­er­a­tion Treaty.

On 29 Sep­tem­ber (US time), a res­o­lu­tion rat­i­fy­ing the Treaty was passed by the US Sen­ate. This fol­lows the pas­sage of the Treaty’s imple­ment­ing leg­is­la­tion through the US Sen­ate on 27 Sep­tem­ber and the US House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on 28 September.

The Treaty is a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward for prac­ti­cal defence and trade coop­er­a­tion between Aus­tralia and the Unit­ed States. 

The Min­is­ter for For­eign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, said strength­en­ing our Alliance with the US and build­ing clos­er eco­nom­ic ties are fun­da­men­tal to Australia’s nation­al interests. 

The Min­is­ter for Defence, Stephen Smith, said that the Treaty cre­ates a frame­work for two-way trade between Aus­tralia and the US in both clas­si­fied and unclas­si­fied-but-con­trolled defence arti­cles with­out the need for export licenses.

The Treaty is expect­ed to offer reduced deliv­ery times for new defence projects and improve busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties for Aus­tralian com­pa­nies to par­tic­i­pate in US contracts.

Under the Treaty, an Approved Com­mu­ni­ty of gov­ern­ment facil­i­ties and pri­vate com­pa­nies will be estab­lished in both coun­tries, with­in which trade in defence arti­cles can be under­tak­en with­out the admin­is­tra­tive delays caused by US and Aus­tralian export con­trol regulations.

The Min­is­ter for Trade, Craig Emer­son, said allow­ing Aus­tralian firms to devel­op clos­er links with the US Defence sec­tor would open up impor­tant export opportunities.

The Gov­ern­ment will now take all nec­es­sary steps to com­plete Australia’s domes­tic rat­i­fi­ca­tion require­ments, includ­ing intro­duc­ing imple­ment­ing leg­is­la­tion into Par­lia­ment and con­sult­ing the defence indus­try on implementation. 

The Treaty will enter into force when both coun­tries’ domes­tic rat­i­fi­ca­tion require­ments are complete. 

Media Con­tacts
Min­is­ter Smith: Mary Bag­nall (0434 665 067)
Min­is­ter Rudd: Kate Sieper (0466 745 615)
Min­is­ter Emer­son: Mark Taven­er (0410 030 262) 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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