Weapons trade between US and Australia 'streamlined' as AUKUS partners lower export requirements
Strict rules governing the export of American weapons to Australia will be lifted from next month as the three AUKUS partners look to share military technology.
Transcript
00:00This opening up of defence trade between Australia and the United States is expected to unlock
00:06billions of dollars of investment.
00:09Now, the United States has very strict rules governing its defence exports, but it will
00:13lift those so Australia can have licence-free trade to 70 per cent of those defence exports.
00:19We've heard from the Defence Minister Richard Miles today.
00:22He spoke on RN, and here's some of what he had to say.
00:26This is really important in terms of our ability to build our future submarines, but
00:31also to pursue that AUKUS Pillar 2 agenda of those new, innovative technologies.
00:36So this will see a much easier flow of technology and information between our three countries.
00:41Now, of course, this deal goes both ways.
00:44So Australia will lift defence export permits on more than 1,000 of those, so that Australian
00:50defence exporters can send more freely to the United States and the UK.
00:54There are some critics of this deal, though.
00:56They say that it effectively binds Australia to the United States defence export system,
01:01and there are some concerns that there is such an influx from the UK and the United
01:06States, and the impact that will have on Australian defence exporters, such as the manufacturers
01:12of the Ghostbat aircraft.