Australia Yearbook - 2009-10

cooperation, including in addressing the needs of
fragile states; and an agreement on principles that
will guide greater cooperation on intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance, and cyber
security.
Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd visited the
USA in March, September and November 2008
and in March, September and December 2009.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith
visited the USA in January and September 2008
and in April and September 2009. The Minister
for Trade Simon Crean visited the USA in January,
June and December 2008 and in March and
October 2009. At Mr Smith’s invitation, former
US Secretary of State Ms Condoleezza Rice visited
Australia in July 2008. Other Australian Ministers
visited the USA in the past year to advance
Australian priorities in defence, the G20, climate
change, innovation, economic recovery,
education and environmental cooperation.
The Australia-US Free Trade Agreement
(AUSFTA) entered into force on 1 January 2005,
providing significant new opportunities for
Australian exporters and investors. The
Australia-United States Ministerial Trade Talks
(AUSMINTT), which review implementation of
AUSFTA and provide the opportunity to discuss a
broad range of bilateral, regional and global trade
and economic issues that impact on Australian
and US interests, met in Newark, New Jersey in
June 2008 and in Washington in October 2009.
The USA is one of Australia’s top merchandise
trading partners, its largest services trading
partner and its leading source of foreign
investment. In 2008 Australia exported goods
and services to the USA worth $18.3 billion and
imported goods and services from the USA worth
$36.5 billion. Major Australian exports to the USA
include professional services, beef, alcoholic
beverages, and crude petroleum. Investment
remains a strong feature of the economic
relationship, with two-way investment valued at
$813 billion at the end of 2008.
People-to-people ties, including educational and
cultural links, are extensive. In 2008-09, 370,866
visitor visas were granted to US citizens – the
second-largest source after the United Kingdom.
Over the same period, 9598 student visas were
granted to US citizens – the eighth-largest source.
A Work and Holiday Memorandum of
Understanding between Australia and the USA,
which allows tertiary students to undertake a gap
year in the USA, came into effect in October 2007.
Japan
Australia’s close relationship with Japan continues
to draw strength from long-established common
interests and values. Both countries are
industrialised democracies, committed to
prosperity and stability in the Asia-Pacific region
and key allies of the United States of America.
Australia and Japan are working together to
identify new areas to broaden the existing
partnership on security matters, including
counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation.
Japan and Australia also have an extensive record
of cooperation in areas such as humanitarian
relief, peacekeeping, responding to the global
financial crisis, and responding to climate change.
Japan underwent an historic change of
government in August 2009 with the Democratic
Party of Japan winning power after 54 years of
nearly continuous rule by the Liberal Democratic
Party. The Australian Government has engaged
early with the new Government. The Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd and the Minister for Foreign
Affairs Stephen Smith both met their
counterparts at the UN General Assembly in New
York in September 2009. The Minister for Trade
Simon Crean’s visit to Japan in October 2009 –
the first there by an Australian Cabinet Minister
since the new Japanese Government’s election –
highlighted Australia’s continued commitment to
working closely with Japan across a range of
issues.
Cooperation on defence and security issues
continued to develop strongly. Australia and
Japan are implementing the Joint Declaration on
Security Cooperation, signed by the then Prime
Ministers of Australia and Japan in 2007, through
an Action Plan. The Declaration is the most
ambitious security arrangement that Japan has
entered into with any country other than the
United States and encompasses regular foreign
and defence ministers talks, joint exercises and
training. The Action Plan to implement the Joint
Declaration will be updated in due course to
reflect the evolving security relationship. The
second joint Foreign and Defence Ministers’
meeting was held in Tokyo in December 2008.
Mr Smith and his US and Japanese counterparts,
Ms Hillary Clinton and Mr Katsuya Okada, held
the fourth ministerial meeting of the Trilateral
Chapter 5 — International relations 149