Word: fta
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Dates: during 2004-2004
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...Washington. The relationship between the two national leaders could hardly be better: both support free trade in principle, and they fought as allies in Afghanistan and Iraq. Congress had given Bush fast-track approval to pursue FTAs; Howard saw a chance to prise open the U.S. agricultural market. This FTA (following agreements between Australia and New Zealand and between the U.S. and Canada) is only the third between developed nations. Many minor FTAs are being written that have not required the toil and sweat of the AUSFTA. But as with exercise, no pain, no gain. The agreement, while far from...
...countries can reach a deal on a free trade agreement. For a host of reasons, mainly political, it's unlikely that the two teams of negotiators will be doing high-fives by the weekend. After a year of serious negotiations over the complicated chapters that comprise a FTA, and longer still if you consider the soft diplomacy involved, the momentum seems destined to stall. The obvious goodwill between leaders President Bush and Prime Minister John Howard will not be enough to overcome either the heavy-duty handiwork of America's farm and pharmaceutical lobbies or the time constraints on Congress...
...some ways it is fanciful to think Australia should be pursuing a FTA with the U.S. It's true that opening up access for Australia's exporters to the world's largest economy could bring, as Vaile is prone to remind voters, $A4 billion a year to the bottom line of the local economy. It's also true that allies Bush and Howard are free traders, and that the relationship between the two countries has rarely been better. Yet the enormous economic and political disparities between the two countries prompts questions about what kind of deal could benefit both...
...well, Australia's taxpayer-funded Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, under which the federal government buys prescription drugs in bulk to reduce their price for all residents, is being targeted by drug companies. The U.S. pharmaceutical industry is looking for ways of challenging price-control schemes around the world, and the FTA negotiations with Australia are a convenient vehicle for this. Any significant change to Australian pharmaceutical costs - to consumers or taxpayers - would be a big problem for the government. In an election year, Howard and Vaile, who is leader-in-waiting of the rural-based National Party, can't afford...
...FTAs are not the flavor of the month, nor is there a push to remove entrenched tariffs or subsidies. Some of Zoellick's earlier free-trade deals in the Americas are looking shaky. If the Australian business is not sorted out this week, the negotiations will lapse. Consequently, an FTA won't get through Congress by mid-year, and the election cycle will kill it. If Bush is re-elected, the next Congress could be even less accommodating; every Administration has a house cleaning, and key U.S. trade personnel could soon be looking to explore new opportunities - in lobbying...