Australia Aims for Trade Accord With South Korea, Gillard Says
April 23, 2011, 11:40 PM EDTBy James Paton
April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she plans to discuss a free-trade agreement tomorrow 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 yesterday in Seoul, according to a copy of the address on the prime minister’s website. “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, Gillard said. Korea Gas Corp. is a partner in the $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 ($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, according to Gillard.
Australia and Japan agreed to work more closely on developing sources of clean energy following the March 11 earthquake and nuclear crisis and reaffirmed a commitment to introduce a free-trade agreement, Gillard said April 22 in Tokyo.
--Editors: Anand Krishnamoorthy.
To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in Sydney jpaton4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net
