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The Australia-Chile Free Trade Agreement (AClFTA) was expected to offer Australian exporters opportunities across the board, including in mining and energy technology and services and energy (coal, LNG, renewable energy)

In January 2014, Australia and 13 other WTO Members, including China, the European Union, Japan and the United States launched negotiations for a plurilateral agreement on the liberalisation of trade in environmental goods. The EGA will be a non-preferential plurilateral agreement, reinforcing the multilateral trading system and benefiting all WTO Members by applying the principle of Most Favoured Nation. The EGA will build on commitments made by APEC Leaders in 2012 for reductions in tariffs on a list of 54 environmental goods, and will likely include other goods that directly and positively contribute to green growth and sustainable development. Australia is the current chair of the negotiations, which commenced in July 2014. When concluded, the agreement will eliminate tariffs on an agreed range of goods to help protect the environment and address climate change.

A National Strategy on Energy Efficiency is being implemented and renewable power generation has been the focus of government policy and assistance to the sector

(...) New legislation was prepared to replace the more than century old Quarantine Act 1908 and ensure the transition from non risk based rigid intervention targets to a flexible risk‑return approach. The Biosecurity Bill 2012 and Inspector General of Biosecurity Bill 2012 were introduced into Parliament on 28 November 2012 but as The House of Representatives was dissolved on 5 August 2013, the Bills lapsed; they were also notified to the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures in July 2012 and Australia provided responses to the questions raised by Members. On 7 July 2014 the Minister for Agriculture announced plans to progress with a Biosecurity Bill 2014, introduced to Parliament on 27 November 2014 and notified to the WTO. The objective of the Bill is to simplify and streamline biosecurity laws whilst still ensuring the high standard of protection of Australia's human, environmental and animal health expected by the community. Subject to the passing of the Biosecurity Bill a repeal of the Quarantine Act of 1908 would not affect the validity of existing import risk analyses (IRAs) (section 3.2.7.2.3), nor would it require a biosecurity impact risk Analysis to be completed where an Import Risk Analysis already exists. Import permits issued under the Quarantine Act would remain valid for the duration of the permit. An amount of $A 20 million is to be delivered over four years, starting in 2014/15, to strengthen biosecurity and quarantine arrangements.

(…) During the review period, sectoral policy developments have focused largely on ensuring a sustainable, productive and resilient agricultural base, supported by measures on drought relief, water and land management, farm finance and rural research. (...)

(...) In 2014/15, the CPI is expected to remain well contained due to moderate wage pressures helping to keep unit labour costs down and the repeal of the carbon tax (sections 1.4.1, 3.4.1.2, 4.3.1, and 4.3.2) which is likely to reduce the headline CPI by three-quarters of a percentage point by June 2015.

The EBPS, administered by the AusIndustry Division of the Department of Industry and Science, provides for duty-free imports of eligible goods to be used in major projects in mining, resource processing, agriculture, food processing, food packaging, manufacturing, and industries supplying gas, water and energy.

Australia's approach to non-preferential rules of origin (ROOs) remains unchanged since its previous Review; however, changes were made to preferential ROOs in its RTAs. The most common rules in these RTAs are those of: wholly obtained; change in tariff classification (CTC); regional value content (RVC); and the process rule (for chemicals). The ROOs in Australia's RTA with Singapore are based on an RVC measure, while the ROOs in its RTAs with New Zealand, the United States, Thailand, and Chile are essentially based on the CTC methodology, reinforced and enhanced where necessary with RVC and process rule requirements or options. In Australia's RTA with ASEAN and New Zealand and the RTA with Malaysia, "alternative and co equal" product-specific rules exist for most tariff lines, offering exporters the choice of a CTC based rule or an RVC-based equivalent. Around 83% of tariff lines are covered by these "alternative and co equal" rules, while approximately 11% of lines offer only one option — either a CTC based or RVC rule. The remaining lines are covered by wholly obtained requirements for agricultural goods and special rules for waste and scrap goods.(...)

The Government also supports environmental projects and conservation management, through the National Landcare Programme (AUD 1 billion) and the Green Army (AUD 700 million).

The agricultural sector receives no market price support. Budget financed programmes are mainly used for natural resource and environmental management, in particular water. (…)