To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA), the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, in conjunction with the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, hosted a day-long conference earlier this month. Attendees and speakers included current and former US and Australian government officials, people involved with the negotiations that brought the deal together, and members of the private sector from business and industry, among others. Keynote remarks were given by former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, and the day was opened with an address by Robert Zoellick, former United States Trade Representative and president of the World Bank. Mr. Howard was also interviewed during the event and evaluated the accomplishments of the FTA and the growth in US-Australia investment in a podcast released by the US Studies Centre.
Major themes of the conference included energy and innovation in the 21st Century, next chapters in Indo-Pacific free trade, plans to bolster future prosperity between Australia and the US, and business opportunities across the Pacific. Several of these themes were also included in Australia Matters for America/America Matters for Australia, a publication jointly produced by the East-West Center in Washington and the US Studies Centre in Sydney and launched on Capitol Hill in Washington in April 2015. For more information on data on the US-Australia trade relationship, please download the free PDF of the Australia Matters for America publication or browse the data by topic here.