.
The deadline for receiving submissions is Friday 4 February 2005.
Submissions may be lodged electronically to asean_fta@dfat.gov.au,
or by post at the following address:
The Asia Trade Task Force, DFAT
RG Casey Building
John McEwen Crescent
BARTON ACT 0221
We will circulate a submission in the coming weeks for your comment or
for you to use to assist in your own submission.
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3. Monitoring the impacts of the US FTA in 2005
The Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (USFTA) came into force on
January 1, 2005. The implementing legislation was amended and passed by the Senate in
August, despite the largest critical community campaign and media debate ever held about a
trade agreement. Community groups argued that the inclusion of social policies in a trade
agreement undermines democracy and sovereignty by giving the US government powerful
influence over many Australian law and policies.
The ALP amendments to the implementing legislation on medicines
reflected community concerns about access to affordable medicines. The amendments sought
to prevent large drug companies from using legal tactics to delay access to cheaper
generic drugs. The US objected to this amendment and also demanded further changes to
copyright law before finally signing off on the Agreement in November 2004. When it became
clear that the Senate would not change the medicines amendment, the Government did not
attempt it, but did push through the copyright changes. The US government confirmed
community fears about the disputes process by stating publicly that it reserved its right
to challenge the medicines amendment through the US FTA disputes process after the
agreement comes into force.
Such a challenge would present fuel for a community campaign to end the
agreement. This can by done by either government giving six months' notice. This is not
likely under the present government, and would be a long-term campaign.
However disillusionment with the agreement may emerge from diverse
areas:
- A series of articles by Mark Davis in the Australian Financial Review (January
5-7 2005) has exposed how well-funded business lobbying and consultants were used to
ruthlessly construct support for the agreement against the advice of many conventional
trade economists and sceptical farmers' groups, who were promised access to US
agricultural markets that was not delivered.
- A report from General Motors in Detroit has revealed that complete removal of tariff
barriers may enable GM to assemble Australian-designed Holdens in the US instead of
Australia (Sydney Morning Herald, January 12 2005). This is completely contrary to
the promises of increased exports from Australia to the US and would mirror the Canadian
experience of NAFTA, where Canadian jobs have been lost as transnational corporations
consolidate manufacturing sites.
AFTINET will continue to monitor and expose the impacts of the
agreement on access to medicines and other social policies.
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4. WTO report criticises increasing trend to
bilateral trade relations
Vaile defends trade deals, The Australian, 18 January 2005
By Belinda Tasker
Trade Minister Mark Vaile today defended Australia's free trade deals
with foreign countries after a new World Trade Organisation (WTO) report said such
agreements could be discriminatory. Australia's free trade agreements (FTA) with the
United States and Thailand came into force earlier this month and the Federal Government
is considering pursuing another with China.
But the WTO report, released overnight, said it was deeply concerned by
the "spaghetti bowl" of bilateral agreements springing up across the globe.
"It is unconvinced by the economic case for them and especially concerned that
preferential treatment is becoming merely a reward for governments pursuing non-trade
related objectives," the WTO report said.
The report said the only way to end the discriminatory preferences in
the trade agreements was to reduce most favoured nation tariffs and non-tariff measures in
multilateral trade negotiations. "The need for success in the Doha Round (of world
trade talks) is manifest from this perspective," it said. "A commitment by
developed members of the WTO to establish a date by which all their tariffs will move to
zero should now be considered seriously."
But Mr Vaile hit back at the criticism, saying Australia's FTAs were in
the national interest and would deliver benefits to all Australians. "The new
opportunities that will flow to Australia as a result of the bilateral free trade
agreements with the United States and Thailand, which were WTO consistent, are
enormous," he said in a statement.
However, he agreed with the report's call for FTAs to support the
multilateral trading system and for the WTO to develop more effective disciplines on such
agreements. "While not everyone, including Australia, will necessarily agree with all
the recommendations of the report, it is an important sign of how seriously the WTO takes
its responsibility to respond to change and continue to work for the benefit of all
members – developed and developing countries alike," he said.
Opposition trade spokesman Simon Crean said the WTO report validated
Labor's concerns about Australia's FTAs. "Consistent with this report, Labor believes
FTAs should only be pursued if they genuinely advance multilateral trade
liberalisation," he said. "This was not the case with the Australia-US
FTA."
Mr Crean said Australia's priority should be to help the liberalisation
of the world market place at the WTO Doha Round of trade talks. The Doha Round of talks is
expected to conclude before the end of the year. Continuing rifts between developed and
developing nations on key issues and resistance to demands for cuts in agricultural
subsidies prevented them wrapping up as planned last December.
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5. Australia pushes developing countries to make
service commitments in WTO trade in services agreement (GATS)
The Australian government joined with other WTO members (US, EC,
Hong Kong, Canada, Chile, Iceland, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway,
Singapore, Switzerland, and Chinese Taipei) to table a statement urging WTO member
countries to progress service commitments in this round of GATS negotiations.
The statement was tabled at a cluster of WTO service negotiations in
December and called for members to "engage substantively in the request / offer
process" between now and May. To date, only 50 offers have been tabled and the
Government is concerned that these offers do not contain significant commitments.
Australia’s second round offer in the GATS negotiations is due in
May 2005, so it will be important in the coming months to keep pressure on the Government
to ensure essential services are not included in the second round offer.
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6. Community Organising School, 3 – 6 April,
Sydney
A community organising school will be held from Sunday April 3 to
Wednesday April 6. The School seeks to link experienced organisers from a variety of
social justice and environment movements. The School will run sessions to draw out lessons
from the participants and to learn and share techniques for social change organising.
For more information or to register for the School, please go to www.communityorganisingschool2005.blogspot.com.
