Page 27 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2022

MAY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE BUSINESS NTIB 27
by the Pentagon to develop rare earths in its processing facility in Texas.
“It is certainly something that is a particularly high pri- ority for us to further develop and I think you can see that through the expression in the AUSMIN statement last year, where Ministers recognised the need to further expand practical engagement and integration under the NTIB. They also committed to strengthen efforts to streamline export controls and to facilitate technology transfer and protection,” Moore adds.
“There is work to be done, but the fact that we are rec- ognised in the US as a trusted partner for supply chain resilience gives us a good foundation on which to build. If anything, COVID showed how fragile some of our sup- ply chains can be and there really is a recognition through a number of economies now – including ours – that re- silience within supply chains and having trusted markets is incredibly important across the economy, including the defence sector.”
MAXIMISING OPPORTUNITIES
With the current government keen to build up a sovereign defence industry in Australia, mechanisms such as the Australian Defence Export Office and the Team Defence Australia approach to international trade shows are cer- tainly paying dividends in terms of getting local companies recognised on the world stage.
A further initiative is the Defence Global Competitive- ness Grants Program which is designed to assist Australian SMEs to gear up for export and provides grants of up to
$240,000 to purchase equipment or expand their business to be able to become more globally competitive.
“To find success in the US there are a number of things Australian businesses need to consider. One of the govern- ment’s aims is to create and support a sovereign Australian industrial base – and an internation-
ally competitive industrial base – and internationally competitive is the key there,” Moore explains.
“THIS IS A LONG-TERM ENDEAVOUR THAT WILL DELIVER FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES FOR AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE INDUSTRY BUSINESSES TO PARTICIPATE IN THE US MARKET”
“Businesses need to be competitive
if they’re going to find a market in the
US. We have a number of programs in
place that assist businesses with that
and at the officials’ level we’re look-
ing at what barriers exist within both
our systems that could inhibit Austra-
lian companies from finding success
in the US markets. Some of that is
strengthening efforts to streamline
export controls and facilitate tech-
nology transfer and protections, so we work with our US counterparts to look at those issues and try to find ways to streamline some of the regulatory hurdles that exist to greater industrial base integration.” ■
LEFT: Australian industry has a breadth of capabilities that could plug gaps in the US supply chain
ABOVE: The NTIB will potentially provide opportunity for local industry to further participate in the US supply chain
RUAG AUSTRALIA