Australia’s trade minister Simon Crean is crowing about the new Free trade deal he has just signed Australia up to.
AUSTRALIA will open its markets completely to imports from the 10 ASEAN countries, but will not get full access to their markets under a free trade agreement signed in Thailand last night.
Under a deal Trade Minister Simon Crean said was bigger than the deal with the US, indeed “the largest FTA Australia has ever signed”
Well done Simon. Every Australian & New Zealand farmer and manufacturer can now compete on a level playing field with farmers and manufacturers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
Lets see last time I looked all except Singapore are 3rd world nations who pay their workers what AU$2 day. In Australia we pay our workers $200 a day with your government about to increase that by up to 20% with your new industrial relations reforms.
We should have no trouble competing with their food producers or manufacturers.
- Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean
But hang on – Simon must have won us some advantages with his honed and tough negotiating skills.
Australia already has free trade with Singapore. But the other nine Asian countries will retain some barriers in areas including dairy products, cars, and other machinery to protect producers.
Minister Crean crows:
“Trade barriers are coming down in the region,”
And he is right - ours – get ready to see a flood of cheap food, cars, and retail junk in Australian and New Zealand supermarkets and shopping malls.
“Our challenge to Australian business and exporters is to look to South-East Asia to take advantage of the new opportunities.
This is an extremely strong signal to the rest of the world that the Asian region remains committed to pursuing economic growth, exports and jobs to help drive the economic recovery.”
Oh thats great – so Mr Crean, lets now look to South-East Asia to export all of our jobs, as we saw this week with Pacific Brands (Bonds) sacking 1,850 Australian workers and closing 7 factories to move its operation to China.
Lets look to South-East Asia to import all of our fruit and vegetables while Australian farmers produce rots in the paddock or on the tree because we can’t compete with the flood of cheap imports.
Simon, just tell us what we can produce on a huge scale here that those countries can afford to buy, is it rice (no), is it wheat (no), is it beef (no), is it lamb (no), is it dairy (yes – oh but its no included in the deal) well then maybe it’s Kangaroo?
Unfortunately our farmers can’t move their farm production to South East Asia, because unlike Australia those countries have severe restrictions on foreigners owning land in their countries.
Well done Simon, another stake in the heart of all Australian food producers and manufacturers.
Don’t you love Free Trade. Well these industry groups do:
Business groups hailed the agreement. The Business Council, National Farmers Federation, Minerals Council, Australian Industry Group, and Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry united in support, although the NFF regretted the exclusions.
Thats right folks – National Farmers Federations supports the deal, with some regrets. They are a pathetic joke.
*****
Have your say!
March 3, 2009 at 11:47 am
Andrew
Thanks for your detailed reply.
No doubt when I’ve read the links you posted I’ll have more questions.
It (free trade) all seems like madness. It assumes that we don’t need any sovereign industries. In other words we (as a nation)can’t stand on our own two feet.
Is it naive to assume that supply control will not lead to price control ?
All political flavours are endorsing free trade so I wonder what course of action can be taken to protect ourselves.
March 3, 2009 at 11:20 am
FTAs are a nightmare, regardless of the benefits the proponents put forward. When Canada signed into the NAFTA, they were left with a deficit of 200000 jobs!
It might be of interest to those who have not perused the document to do some research on the LIMA agreement, which was the forerunner of all the FTAs and MAIs. The expressed purpose was to transfer financial and other economic resources from the developed world to the developing world via breaking down international barriers.
The applicable sections are included in an editorial on the SA site of the Australian Protectionist Party website, titled “Lima Declaration-March 2005″.(http://www.protectionistsa.com)
It can be seen from the Lima Declaration there is no “net benefit” intended for developed nations- it results in massive profits for a few and massive job losses for many.
In an environment where there is no loyalty to one’s own nation and it’s people, all that matters is the goal of financial gain. To our current crop of leaders, Australians are nothing more than economic units, we’re not a country, we’re consumers in a vast global village. Our resources and labour are to be traded off and bugger the future of our children and our national sovereignty.
Other contributors to this topic are correct in expressing concerns about this development. Our supermarkets will further ignore our local producers in favour of cheap imported products (despite the concern of local consumers), local manufacturers will send operations overseas to make massive products through cheap compliant labour and poor environmental regulations. Look at so called Aussie Icon Hills Industries. Every 6 months they’d hold a meeting telling workers that the future was great, then they’d close another department and pack it off to bloody China….
Their large property in Adelaide is now a holding shed for imported goods. Little wonder they changed their logo and got rid of the Aussie flag. Still, the shareholders get a boost.
So, what is the future? Do we continue to support so called representative bodies that try to tell us FTAs will eventually do us proud and all we have to do is hold on the best we can until the rest of the world sees the light? Do we continue to vote in politicians (global village idiots) willing to sell this country down the drain?
I fear for my childrens’ future and will work with anyone willing to stop this trend.
March 2, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Thanks John
That’s the way I see it too. But I thought there had to be more to it !
If that’s what “free trade” does why are all political flavours rushing to embrace it? What’s the payoff ?
March 2, 2009 at 10:02 am
Net benefit Charlie? Australian workers and producers lose their jobs and income but we get cheap Asian products in return so we don’t need to spend as much of the bit we have left – is that how it works? Maybe Simon Crean can explain it better but at the moment the balance of trade seems to be weighted in their favour.
March 1, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Please Explain ?
Can anybody explain how these free trade agreements are a NET benefit to Australians. If they are a NET benefit to us then what is being done to compensate those who are being disadvantaged by “free trade”