Michaela Browning spoke with NPF about Australia’s trade priorities.

She is Australia’s consul general to Hong Kong and Macau. She is an experienced diplomat with extensive international policy, program management and operational experience. She has previously been posted to Singapore and Thailand. She has also been a trade negotiator in the World Trade Organization and on Australia’s free-trade agreements with the U.S. and Singapore, and oversaw negotiations on the Australia-Hong Kong FTA. She has been a senior policy adviser on Asia, trade and international security issues, including on intelligence and counter-terrorism for Australia’s minister for foreign affairs and on international policy and intelligence for the minister for defence. She was head of investment at Austrade, Australia’s trade and investment promotion agency. Before that, she was general manager for established markets and special adviser on strategy and China with overall responsibility for Austrade’s presence in North America, Western Europe, North Asia, Turkey, Israel, New Zealand and the Pacific. Prior to that, she managed Australia’s substantial aid programs in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She has master’s degrees in foreign affairs and trade and in Japanese, and a bachelor’s degree in economics, from Monash University. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.