BHP CEO backs lifting US crude export ban

BHP boss Andrew Mackenzie wants the US to lift a ban on crude oil exports and dismantle trade barriers with China and India.

BHP boss Andrew Mackenzie

BHP Billiton's chief executive has backed a call for the US to lift its ban on crude oil exports. (AAP)

Mining giant BHP Billiton's chief executive has backed a call for the United States to lift its ban on crude oil exports, ahead of a likely vote on the issue in the US Congress.

Andrew Mackenzie has also called on the world's largest economy to dismantle trade barriers with China, India and other emerging economies, saying international trade is needed to boost global growth.

"If the US revises its policies on the trade in natural resources, particularly the crude oil export ban, it will be a stand for open markets," Mr Mackenzie said in a speech to the US Chamber of Commerce.

"The ban is a legacy of the 1970s oil-shock, that today cuts jobs, pay, and profits in the US and worldwide."

The US House of Representatives is expected to pass a bill in coming weeks to lift the four-decade-old ban, but President Barack Obama said this week he will oppose the bill.

The lifting of the ban would cut fuel prices at the pump and add hundreds of thousands of jobs to the US economy, Mr Mackenzie argued.

A misplaced fear of scarcity has led to growing resource nationalism that hurts both commodity producers and consumers alike, he said, pointing out that trade barriers created since the global financial crisis have actually slowed down global trade.

"I can tell you that we have all the resources we need to meet demand, for everything we mine or drill, for many decades to come."

On Wednesday, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) cut its world economic growth forecasts for 2015 and 2016, warning of a dramatic slowdown in Brazil and a global outlook clouded by uncertainty over China.

Mr Mackenzie also called for broad trade agreements such as the TPPA and TTIP for the global economy to create trade benefits.

The US is currently in negotiations over an Asia-Pacific trade agreement, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), as well as the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union.


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Source: AAP


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