The PM has two goals for this US trip

October 22, 2023
MediaIntel.Asia

Security talks have gained a fresh dimension with the renewed tensions in the Middle East on top of shared concerns over China and Russia.
One of the key focuses of the trip will be to flesh out details of the Climate, Critical Minerals and Clean Energy Transformation Compact Mr Albanese and Mr Biden signed in May.
Resources Minister Madeleine King will join Mr Albanese and co-host a critical minerals roundtable with US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. As well as officials from both governments, Australian and US business chiefs will participate.
It is understood one of the major themes of the roundtable will be how Australia can become involved in the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, the administration’s $US783 billion ($1.2 billion) green subsidy scheme that is turbocharging investment in clean energy.
As a free trade agreement partner, Australia is already eligible for offtake agreements under the IRA but Canberra and Washington are looking at how to encourage American firms to invest in Australia.
Similarly, there will be talks around how Australian businesses, particularly miners and processors of raw materials, can feed into IRA funded projects.
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US legislation to have Australia considered as “domestic” supplier of critical minerals has stalled in Congress, but Mr Albanese said IRA talks were crucial.
“As we move to a clean energy global economy, Australia is in a strong position to benefit because of the critical minerals we have,” Mr Albanese said.
The IRA has been criticised though for distorting investment flows and former Reserve Bank deputy governor Guy Debelle, who now sits on the board of ASX-listed critical minerals junior Tivan, acknowledged it represented a double-edged sword for a major energy exporter such as Australia.
Complementarities and competition
Dr Debelle said Mr Albanese should press to ensure Australian industry could move up the value chain under the IRA.
“We need to make sure we just don’t dig up the rocks and ship them to the US, but we have downstream processing here,” he said.
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The other objective of Mr Albanese’s visit should be to seek assurances that heavily subsidised US businesses would not be able to unfairly undercut Australia in the major Asian export markets that have been our economic backbone.
“If I was Albo I’d be looking for the complementarities while minimising the competition,” Dr Debelle said.
While Mr Albanese will enjoy strong access to the administration, his engagement with Congressional members – including a potential joint address – remains chaotic because of Republican Party divisions over appointing a House of Representatives Speaker.
The party’s nominee, Jim Jordan, withdrew from the race over the weekend after he continued to lose support from colleagues.
Mr Albanese will use his meetings with lawmakers to push for the passage of AUKUS-related legislation, including the sale of US Virginia-class submarines to the navy, which has been tied to the broader Pentagon budget bills, as well as easing restrictions on transfer of military technology.
“It is important that foreign politicians don’t intervene directly in terms of legislation but this is important,” he said.
“We will be urging support for all of the legislation that is required for AUKUS. There is a great deal of support across the spectrum for this arrangement.”

This data comes from MediaIntel.Asia's Media Intelligence and Media Monitoring Platform.



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