The Australian and New Zealand Government today signed a revised Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Coordination of Business Law.
The MOU was signed at the Closer Economic Relations meeting in Canberra by the Australian Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, Chris Bowen, and the New Zealand Minister of Commerce, Simon Power.
The meeting was also attended by the Australian Trade Minister, Simon Crean, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Tony Burke, the New Zealand Minister of Trade, Tim Groser, and the NZ Minister of Agriculture, Biosecurity and Forestry, David Carter.
The MOU was revised in accordance with the commitment to review the MOU every five years.
Mr Power said: "The revised MOU deepens the already close relationship between our two countries and takes another step towards achieving the ultimate goal of a truly single economic market."
Mr Bowen said: "Working towards a single economic market will reduce and remove barriers for businesses, consumers and investors, as well as increasing productivity, and innovation."
The Ministers also took the opportunity to discuss the progress achieved across the SEM agenda since the Prime Ministers' joint statement of intent and release of 27 short-and-medium-term outcome proposals in August last year.
"We welcome the substantial progress achieved across the outcomes framework to date and look forward to making further progress over time," the Ministers said.
23 June 2010