There are some very important decisions which must be made by Government and industry as a result of the APEC region becoming free of barriers to trade and investment by 2010. These decisions must be made, and acted upon, very soon, because indicators suggest that if we don't, if we delay our preparations, we won't be ready when the time actually arrives. Take the last few years as an example. Australian industry has become more competitive as protection has been reduced. The problem was that the Labor Government did not honour its part of the bargain.
Tariff reform is relatively easy.
The scheduled reduction is set out in legislation and automatically come into effect on the 1 July each year. However, the previous Government failed to make the necessary decisions in the other areas of microeconomic reform that would help business absorb the impact of increased competition from abroad. In competitive international markets you cannot afford to penalise industry with inefficient domestic markets and uncompetitive policies. They cannot afford to support inefficient public infrastructure. On world markets our manufacturing firms are price takers.