CANBERRA - New Zealand and Australia will for the first time set aside their own specific national ambitions to work on a new approach to the world based on benefit to the wider transtasman economy.
The move, including the establishment of a new body of senior officials to drive the plan through, was agreed by Prime Minister John Key and Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd during their meeting in Canberra last week.
Although largely overlooked in the welter of announcements that will among other things speed passengers through international terminals and possibly create a new joint Anzac rapid response force, the decision was one of the most significant outcomes.
It will build on a revitalised drive to develop a single economic market between the two countries and will be guided by a set of principles designed to merge separate national priorities into a framework of mutual benefit.
The new single economic market outcomes framework agreed by the two leaders will also be matched with a wide-ranging agenda of specific measures to improve the ease - and lower the costs - of doing business across the Tasman.
The Prime Ministers' statement of intent said the framework would support the single economic market agenda and would in the short term drive pragmatic initiatives and set timelines for the work programme.
This work will be overseen by a transtasman implementation group jointly chaired by the Australian Treasury and the New Zealand Ministry of Economic development.
"A key element within this framework is a deliberate move from consideration purely of national benefits in policy development, to consideration of the net transtasman benefit," the statement said.
The focus of negotiations between Canberra and Wellington is already shifting away from tariffs and other border issues to behind-the-border barriers, and last week's announcement of a new investment protocol to be signed this year.
The headline provision of the new protocol is the decision to allow each others' companies almost unparalleled access to investment.
As announced earlier this year, the foreign investment screening threshold for Australians shifting capital to New Zealand will be raised from $100 million to $477 million, and for New Zealanders investing in Australia to A$953 million ($1.1 billion), access matched only by American companies under the Australia-US free trade agreement.
Mr Key said work was also underway to improve the ease of doing business across the Tasman, such as offering securities in both countries using the same documents, the simplification of cross-border insolvency proceedings, easier transtasman company registration, and better-aligned competition law.
The Prime Ministers' statement said strengthened transtasman integration - including through the single economic market agenda - would be vital for both countries, boosting their ability to weather global economic storms, and increasing national productivity, employment and international competitiveness.
In the past five months the two countries have developed an amended joint food standards treaty, revised double taxation arrangements, and concluded a new scheme to allow pension funds to move across the Tasman.
They will launch joint trade promotion campaigns to boost the transtasman share of global markets, especially in Asia, and will work together on economic and regulatory reform through New Zealand membership of Australia's federal-state business regulation and competition working group.
Already linked through biotechnology agreements and the Australian Synchrotron, the two science sectors will collaborate on a range of other projects, including a global carbon capture and storage institute.
They will make a joint bid for the $3.1 billion, 5000-satellite dish Square Kilometre Array radio telescope, competing against southern Africa for a project to probe the origins of the universe.
New transtasman group set up to revitalise drive to single market
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