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Category: Trade / Economic Trends

Trans-Pacific Partnership cannot be salvaged, time to move on, says Heather Ridout

Tuesday, 24 Jan 2017 09:51:42 | Peter Ryan

Australian Industry Group CEO Heather Ridout speaking at the National Press Club on November 30, 2011. (AAP: Alan Porritt, file photo)

Reserve Bank board member Heather Ridout says the Trans-Pacific Partnership cannot be salvaged and the Government needs to focus instead on regional trade deals that will benefit Australia.

"I think it's pretty arguable that it can't be (salvaged), but an awful lot of the elements within the TPP can be," Ms Ridout told the ABC.

"Politically, it's a pretty long bow to think we can save the TPP in its current form without the United States being part of it."

Ms Ridout - whose term at the Reserve Bank ends next month - said the Prime Minister and Trade Minister are right to signal they are committed to free trade, but will eventually be forced to face the reality that the TPP is dead.

"In the end I think they'll be forced to cut to the chase and move towards the broader regional efforts," she said.

External Link: Heather Ridout speaks with Peter Ryan

"A lot of the issues in the TPP can hopefully form the basis and the foundations for other understandings that can be brought toward other agreements."

External Link: Dr Jeffrey Wilson on alternatives to the TPP

Ms Ridout, chair of Australian Super and a director at ASX Limited, also warned about the protectionist policies of newly installed US President Donald Trump.

"We're in uncharted waters. We have a brand as a president," she said.

"That suggests we're in for a period of volatility and uncertainty."

Ms Ridout - a former head of one of Australia's major business lobbies, the Australian Industry Group - expressed concern about many aspects of Donald Trump's politics.

"We do have to be very cognisant of this protectionism, nationalistic, xenophobic movements not just in America," she said.

"Event risk remains for not just the Australian economy but the world economy."

On the Australian economy, Ms Ridout said "we doing just fine" and said while the transition out of the mining boom was "hard", slow progress was being made.

Follow Peter Ryan on Twitter @peter_f_ryan and on his Main Street blog.

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