David Littleproud will be the first Australian Agriculture Minister to visit the United States since 2009 when he touches down this week.
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His visits coincides with a turbulent time in international trade.
Donald Trump has threatened or imposed tariffs on international imports and the US is now feeling the backlash, with a tit-for-tat trade war brewing between Europe, Canada, Mexico and especially China which has slapped retaliatory tariffs on US agricultural produce.
Mr Littleproud will visit the US, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina to push for market access for Aussie exports.
The value of two-way agriculture trade between Australia and the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina was worth a combined $7.6 billion in 2017,” Mr Littleproud said.
“Mexico and Brazil are significant emerging agricultural markets and growing those relationships is vital.
“Australia and Mexico recently signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, our first joint FTA. We are also in negotiations for the Australia-Pacific Alliance FTA, which includes Mexico.
Mr Littleproud said agricultural counsellors, who work in overseas postings to support trade, will support Australian exports in North and Latin America.
“Additional counsellors will be placed in regions where we are negotiating or have recently concluded free trade agreements, including Latin America,” he said.
“The G20 meeting in Argentina will be an opportunity to strengthen our trade relationship with G20 countries, whose markets were worth a combined $37.6b for Australia’s agriculture exports in 2017.
“I will be co-chairing the inaugural Australia-Argentina High Level Agriculture Dialogue with my Argentinian counterpart in Buenos Aires. Argentina is home to 43 million people and is one of the most developed markets in Latin America, so there is huge untapped potential there for our Aussie farmers.”
The US is Australia’s third largest export destination for agricultural products with trade valued at $4b in 2017.
Beef and veal exports to the US were worth $1.7b in 2017.
Mexico is Australia’s largest market for our agricultural exports in Latin America.
The Brazil-Australia two-way agricultural trade was valued at $311 million in 2017 and Argentina two-way trade was valued at $511m.
