1. Senate Committee hearings and successful rally Sydney 23 July
2. New AFTINET training Sydney, 27 August
3. Visit your local member about the USFTA! Project underway
4. Free trade deal is bad medicine
5. US trade deal may end in court
6. Trade deal's protected areas

1. Senate Committee hearings and successful rally Sydney 23 July

The Senate Committee inquiring into GATS and the USFTA came to Sydney to take evidence on 23 July. AFTINET gave evidence on our concerns about these trade negotiations. The Committee was in Melbourne a few weeks ago and went to Canberra and Brisbane as well as Sydney this week. It will report in November.

In the lunchtime break AFTINET and other organisations held a rally in support of the inquiry and to publicise the issues around these trade negotiations.

There was significant media and interest in both the Senate Committee hearing and the rally, and a good crowd for the rally. The speakers were Colin Friels, actor; Doug Cameron, National Secretary AMWU; Senator Kerry Nettle, Greens; Senator Gavin Marshall, ALP; Arthur Chesterfield-Evans MLC, Democrats and Pat Ranald, AFTINET. Photos from the rally will be on the AFTINET website shortly.

Top of page

Why Trade Matters: Training on the WTO negotiations and the US Free Trade Agreement

Would you like more effective tools to explain the WTO GATS agreement, proposals for new WTO agreements and the USFTA to your community organisation or union? This train-the-trainers day will provide both the latest information and skills for effective advocacy. The WTO Ministerial Meeting is in September and the USFTA negotiations are on fast track to finish by December. AFTINET is stepping up our campaign to expose and debate these agendas and propose fair trade alternatives.

• Update on the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and impacts on essential services like health, education and water

• Latest on the proposals for new WTO agreements on investment, competition policy and government procurement and why these are opposed by both developing country governments and community organisations

• Latest developments on the US Free Trade Agreement Negotiations and possible impacts on Australian social policies

• Effective advocacy skills to present the issues to community groups, politicians and the media

• Union and community trainers

• Activists/campaigners

• Community workers

COURSE DETAILS:

The course is free, including light refreshments, but you MUST register in advance. The course is limited to 25 participants. All participants will receive a comprehensive set of course materials. To register contact Sarah Mitchell at PIAC on smitchell@piac.asn.au or phone (02) 9299 7833.

Organised by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET). Thanks to the Uniting Church (NSW Synod) 2% for Development Fund for funding the development of materials and the running of the first course. Thanks to the Public Service Association for the venue.

Top of page

3. Reminder: visit your local member about the USFTA! Politicians visits underway

Last year we held a successful campaign where AFTINET members visited their local members to raise concerns about the GATS negotiations. This brought noticeable responses from the government. Now it is time to do it again about the Australia US Free Trade Agreement. This agreement is currently being negotiated, and the US and Australian governments have said they want to sign it by the end of the year.

AFTINET will prepare a list of key concerns and requests that you can base your visit around and leave with your MP. This will be available shortly. Don’t miss this opportunity to make your voice heard about the USFTA!

If you live outside NSW: Please consider visiting your local member. Additional copies of our leaflet about the USFTA are available by contacting Sarah Mitchell on smitchell@piac.asn.au or on (02) 9299 7833. Please let us know who you visit and how the visit goes.

If you live in NSW: AFTINET member Lesley Gruit has kindly volunteered to coordinate the NSW visits. If you live in NSW please contact Lesley to express your interest in taking part in a visit to your local member.

Lesley’s email: lesleygruit@bigpond.com or leave a message for her at AFTINET on 9299 7833

Once you contact her, Lesley will put you in touch with other AFTINET members from the same electorate who have expressed interest in a visit. She will also be able to tell you who your local member is.

Top of page

4. Free trade deal is bad medicine

By Jeremy Calvert, Herald Sun, 18 July 2003

POPULAR prescription drugs could cost more than $120 a packet under a US free trade agreement. An independent study by the Australia Institute predicts a huge rise in drug prices if Australia caves in to powerful US drug manufacturers and scales back the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Popular brands including cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, anti-depressant Zoloft, arthritis drug Celebrex, schizophrenia drug Zyprexa and the asthma treatment Seratide Accuhaler could all be priced out of many Australians' reach.

Trade Minister Mark Vaile and US negotiators have both given assurances the PBS will not be scrapped, but have not ruled out changes. The Federal Government only pays drug companies what it believes a new drug is worth after comparing it with the next-best alternative. This reference-pricing system is widely regarded as being a world leader in keeping prices low.

Research fellow at the Australia Institute Richard Denniss said the US drug lobby claimed this saved the Government about $1 billion. But the Australia Institute suggested the PBS saved the Government closer to $2.4 billion. If the system were scrapped, so that the Government paid full market prices for US drugs, Mr Denniss predicted consumers would pay the difference. This could mean whopping increases to the co-payment, now capped at $23.10 or $3.70 for concession card holders. "We don't think the Government is going to sign a deal which is going to cost them an extra billion dollars or two a year, so our assumption is they are going to have to raise the co-payment," Mr Denniss said.

FTA supporters claim the threat is overblown. "The US negotiators made it clear they are not seeking the dismantling of the PBS," head negotiator Stephen Deady said.

Peter Sainsbury, president of the Public Health Association, said a US FTA could be a disaster. "In America, many people can't afford drugs or medical treatment," Mr Sainsbury said. "Inability to meet medical bills is the biggest cause of bankruptcy . . . people don't take the recommended medication, and have to decide between food and drugs."

Top of page

5. US trade deal may end in court

By John Garnaut and Caroline Overington, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 July 2003, p. 2

The template for an Australia-US free trade agreement allows American corporations to sue the Australian Government over laws they believe breach the trade deal. Sources close to negotiations over the deal - which resume in Hawaii next week - say the negotiating text is based on existing US trade agreements with Mexico, Canada, Chile and Singapore. The agreements have led to controversy after corporations challenged environmental and services regulations in court.

Australia has effectively accepted allowing corporations to sue governments, but non-government groups and academics fear the rules would erode national sovereignty, sources say. An American company, United Parcel Service, is suing the Canadian Government over Canada Post's monopoly, which allows mail to be sent across Canada for a uniform postal rate. Some say postal services should remain the domain of government.

"It's crazy," said Ann Capling, trade expert and associate professor at Melbourne University. "Not even the World Trade Organisation allows a private corporation to sue a government." But the American draft negotiating text is not necessarily the starting point for talks.

The Australian Government's chief negotiator, Stephen Deady, said the starting template would have input from Australia, not just the US. Equally, other sources said, Australian companies could also sue the US Government. Foreign Affairs officials will arrive in Hawaii on Sunday for the first serious talks on the most sensitive subject, opening American markets to Australian sugar, dairy products and beef. Australia's acceptance of a US starting point for the talks will disappoint farmers. The Government had said it would fight to use the Australia-Singapore or Australia-New Zealand free trade agreements as models.

Farmers say using the American template could place them on the back foot. Past American agreements have not challenged production subsidies that US farmers enjoy under the $US180 billion Farm Bill, dealing only with "market access" barriers such as tariffs and quotas.

Any market access provisions have been subject to phase-in periods of up to 12 years. The Australian ambassador to Washington, Michael Thawley, put himself at loggerheads with farmers yesterday after conceding for the first time that phase-in periods were an option. The president of the National Farmers Federation, Peter Corish, said: "Long transition times have been the problem with some other agreements the US has negotiated." US phase-in conditions were "not acceptable". The Prime Minister, John Howard, has said a deal with the US could set the Australian economy in good stead for 50 years.

The site for this story is: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/17/1058035139206.html

Top of page

6. Trade deal's protected areas

Extract from an article by Mike Willis, Australian Financial Review 23 July 2003

…
That Intellectual Property (IP) issues are paramount in all US bilateral trade negotiations is indisputable. US trade officials are required to ensure that the provisions of any bilateral agreement governing IP rights entered into by the US reflect a standard of protection similar to that found in US law.

Influential US lobby groups, in particular pharmaceutical and recording industry interests, work assiduously with trade officials to ensure that US law entails high IP protection (read protectionist) levels. These groups openly acknowledge that FTA negotiations provide better opportunities to promote tougher "TRIPs-plus" obligations than in the larger multilateral trade forums.

They have heaped considerable praise on their negotiators at the outcome of recent US FTA negotiations involving Jordan, Singapore and Chile. The main US pharmaceutical lobby group, PhRMA, and the International Intellectual Property Alliance, the key copyright interest group, have provided detailed submissions to US officials for the Australia US FTA negotiations. Recently, US trade ambassador Robert Zoellick acknowledged that US-Singapore and US-Chile FTAs serve as "models, breaking new negotiating ground, and setting high standards". And the pharmaceutical industry has welcomed patent provisions contained in the former FTAs.

This is not surprising given reports in the respected Inside US Trade that these provisions strengthen protections for US pharmaceutical companies in ways that were explicitly disallowed in the WTO's Doha declaration on IP rights and public health.

To bring pressure to bear in the FTA negotiations, PhRMA called for Australia to be placed on the US Trade Office special watch list. This means a country's IP protection is problematic though not bad enough (yet) to warrant sanctions.

While the Trade Office rejected that call, the bulk of the PhRMA submission is directed at perceived problems with Australia's pharmaceutical benefits scheme. PhRMA claims that barriers to an effective patent life for their products are being imposed by "restrictive regulatory schemes and practices associated with the PBS". This has had a "significant commercial impact".
…

Mike Willis is an intellectual property law consultant and a former senior research fellow with the Asia Pacific Intellectual Property Law Institute.

Top of page