Trade competitiveness was the main agenda item at a recent meeting between the cargo handling industry’s peak body and Australian Government senior officials in Canberra.
Representatives from the International Cargo Handling & Co-ordination Association Australia (ICHCA Australia) spoke with officials from a number of Government departments, including Foreign Affairs and Trade, Infrastructure and Transport, as well as Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Speakers from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Austrade and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service also took part in the meeting, which centred on:
- The integration of Australian trade policy with economic policy;
- Changes in the Austrade structure and its new role in trade and investment;
- Progress being made in establishing a national approach to planning, regulation and infrastructure;
- The new shipping reform policy;
- Container statistics and road freight statistics;
- The predicted increase in the shipping task over the next 20 years;
- The introduction of an energy efficiency design index for vessels; and
- The Export Certification Reform Package (ECRP).
The $127.4 million package is the largest agricultural export reform in a generation.
The ECRP includes new regulatory systems, revised legislation, proactive market access work and modern web-based information technology (IT) systems.
With port and intermodal developments featuring more heavily in government and industry planning, challenges arise for border management, as the Australian Federation of International Forwarders (AFIF) notes.
As most infrastructure for containerised cargo is centred around established container ports, careful planning is required to integrate new ports and intermodal sites.
Extended reports on the meeting can be found on the AFIF website.
Image: International Cargo Handling & Co-ordination Association (ICHCA) Australia