Export market intelligence is collected and shared

The Government and industry agree on the importance of understanding overseas market conditions and ensuring information on opportunities for trade as well as barriers to Australian services exports overseas is shared among government and industry.

Research with Industry indicates there is a strong appetite for information and support, including tailored information about in-market set-up and commercial opportunities and challenges.

Industry pointed out that market intelligence is important to help potential exporters with market selection and strategy. This includes information on areas of potential growth and opportunity, as well as potential barriers to doing business.

Barriers that create difficulties for services exporters can include trade rules that unjustifiably disadvantage overseas suppliers or domestic regulations, such as licensing, registration and business requirements that are unnecessarily and prohibitively burdensome – these are known as behind-the-border barriers.

The business environment in Australia’s key export destinations are constantly changing. The development and maintenance of a comprehensive list of barriers faced by Australian services exporters in those markets would create an invaluable tool for business.

Such a list could be the consolidation of existing feedback mechanisms, surveys, workshops, and targeted in-depth interviews to build and prioritise barriers affecting business. This could be linked with the Government’s and perhaps the Export Council of Australia’s existing tools and processes to address behind the border barriers for both goods and services exports.

The Government is committed to working with industry to promote open markets and create commercial opportunities for Australian businesses overseas. This includes doing more to share with industry information on policy developments and in-market insights gleaned by Australian diplomats and trade commissioners operating overseas.

Market intelligence from Australia’s diplomatic network positions our businesses to make informed decisions about the offshore commercial operating environment.

Every day, we share insights from Australia’s diplomatic network directly with businesses so they can understand market developments, navigate disruptions and take advantage of international market expansion opportunities.

The Government annually publishes Market Insights reports on key economies, based on intelligence from the diplomatic network. Intelligence from the diplomatic network, and from Australian business, also informs Government’s economic policy making, including in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical developments.

We agree that having a comprehensive list of international barriers affecting services exports is of vital importance. We welcome close engagement with services firms in identifying, prioritising and resolving where possible barriers to services exports.

The Non-Tariff Barriers Gateway, launched under the Government’s Non-Tariff Barriers Action Plan, is an existing online mechanism for businesses to report barriers they encounter when doing business overseas. We are using the information provided to devise strategies, in partnership with industry, to reduce or remove those barriers.

These efforts are supporting Australian service providers that directly deliver their product overseas, but also the many Australian services that are embedded in the production of our goods exports.

The Government acknowledges the usefulness to business of having access to information on behind-the-border Barriers other businesses are facing overseas. We are open to exploring with industry ways to share that Information while maintaining commercial confidentiality and ensuring integrity.