19 December 2000

Contents:

An enthusiastic crowd of 50 heard Sharan Burrow, ACTU President launch the Case for Fair Trade: a Citizen’s Guide to the WTO on 7 December at NSW Parliament House. The Rev Dr Ann Wansbrough from the Uniting Church and Geoff Evans from the Mineral Policy Institute also spoke.

Media coverage around the launch included several radio interviews and the opinion piece in the Financial Review on 30/11/00 which was in AFTINET Bulletin 11. Senator Peter Cook wrote a reply to the opinion piece on 8/12/00 and a letter from Pat Ranald answering some of his points was published on 15/12/00: an ongoing debate!

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One copy of the booklet and order forms for bulk copies have been sent to all subscribers. Attached to the bulletin is an electronic copy of the training kit which has been updated to match the booklet, so that they can be used together. Please consider ordering more copies of the booklet for your organisation or community group.

Please contact Sarah Mitchell at PIAC if you don’t have an order form or have problems downloading the kit. Email smitchell@piac.asn.au. The order form is also on the website here.

"The Hon. Mark Vaile MP
Minister for Trade
Parliament House
Canberra

Email:  Mark.Vaile.MP@aph.gov.au

Dear Mr Vaile,

Prime Minister Howard announced in November that negotiations on an Australia-Singapore free trade agreement will start soon and be completed by the end of 2001. There have been media reports that the agreement could then be expanded to include New Zealand, Chile and the USA. The Agreement would go much further than Australia’s commitments under WTO agreements.

Various speeches and media reports have indicated that the agreement will cover goods, services, investment and government procurement. Many of these issues were included in the recently–concluded Singapore-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. This agreement reduces scrutiny of foreign investment, makes it more difficult to limit levels of foreign investment and prevents preference to local firms in government procurement. Such proposals would be contrary to some current Australian policies on investment and government procurement.

In a media release on 27 November you said that government will consult widely on the agreement, but also said that negotiations will start early next year.

I am deeply concerned that public commitments have been made by our government to an agreement which could challenge existing domestic policies and to a rushed time table before any public debate.

Please let me know as soon as possible the program for community consultations on this agreement.

Yours sincerely, etc."

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Preliminary advice is that the Parliamentary Inquiry hearing dates in Sydney will be Monday January 29 and Monday February 12, in both cases from 9 - 5 pm. These dates have not yet been confirmed but you could pencil them in for next year. AFTINET will be giving evidence and doing media releases for February 14. This is a better day to organise a large public and media presence at the hearing, as more people will be back from holidays.

January 29 is the Monday of the Australia Day long weekend. Many people will be away on holidays and the media is still likely to be preoccupied with Australia Day stories.

5. Diary 2001 General meeting of AFTINET Wed March 14 at 5.30 pm.

The proposal from the working group is to have a general meeting just over one year after the seminar at which AFTINET was established to discuss what we have achieved and where we go from here. There will be a financial report, discussion of whether we need to incorporate and a call for nominations to the working group. Papers for the meeting will be circulated beforehand. There is also a proposal to have a public meeting with speakers after the general meeting. These proposals will be finalised at the February working group meeting.