1887

OECD Trade and Environment Working Papers

Selected studies addressing the policy interface between trade and environment prepared for use within the OECD. They address such issues a liberalizing trade in goods that affect the environment, and trade in environmental goods and services.

English

Measures Supporting Minerals and Primary Metals Extraction and Processing

Case Study: Australia

Efforts to document government support benefiting specific sectors or industries have so far paid scant attention to support given to the non-energy minerals sector. In this paper the issue of support for this sector is explored by way of a case study of Australia, a leading producer and exporter of minerals. After describing the mining sector in the context of the Australian economy and the role of government in the exploitation of the country’s vast resources, the study identifies and document support measures based on the OECD’s framework for organising and analysing support to the fossil-fuel sector. The study finds that government support to the mining industry is relatively limited. Measures through which the Australian federal government assists the mining industry tax concessions related to corporate expenditure on R&D and on exploration and other expenditure, a fuel-tax rebate and the provision of geoscientific data at zero or minimal cost. The State governments provide preferential electricity prices to aluminium smelters. Monetary estimates of the cost to government of these measures are provided where available.

English

Keywords: Government Support, trade, environment, Non-Energy Minerals
JEL: L52: Industrial Organization / Regulation and Industrial Policy / Industrial Policy; Sectoral Planning Methods; L72: Industrial Organization / Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction / Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Other Nonrenewable Resources; O13: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth / Economic Development / Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products; Q38: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation / Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation: Government Policy; H71: Public Economics / State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations / State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue; H25: Public Economics / Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue / Business Taxes and Subsidies
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error