7. Are Free Trade Agreements Good?

During the Howard era of Australian politics it was the desire of the Australian government to establish free-trade agreements with as many other countries as possible. Under Labor [sic] tarrifs on a number of products had been reduced or scrapped because it was seen as unfair and uneconomical.

Where there is an opportunity to increase sales in the markets of another country it would obviously make economic sense to request that tarrif barriers and quota restrictions in those countries be removed. That, of course, could have a significant and negative impact on the other country's economy and it would be equally fair to expect our tarrifs and quotas to be removed for products and services coming from there.

The reasoning put forward under Hawke and Keating was that keeping high tarrifs only protected inefficient businesses in Australia. Thus we lowered the barriers for several countries, but without reciprocal action - and we suffered as a result. It is irresponsible, for example, to import products from another country unless the workers there are being paid wages which could give them an equivalent standard of living to that of similar workers in Australia.

Note that this does NOT equate to those workers getting the same wages as workers in Australia. For example, a Chinese labourer, earning the same as a labourer in Australia, especially in the mining industry, would living in the lap of luxury.

Free trade agreements should allow us to concentrate on what we do best. It is foolhardy to let another country export to us things which are of equal quality and will sell for less if we don't have a way of exporting our own products to compensate for the national loss.

What most people in Australia don't realise is that the US has a large number of barriers reducing the availability of Australian products yet it insists on us accepting its products and services without complaint.

How many of us are aware that to have a book commercially available in America it has to be printed in the US or Canada and have American spellings? How many of us have watched American ads on TV and not asked why it wasn't made in Australia and with Australian actors? How many American TV programmes do we have on our screens each week? How many of ours do they have?

Free trade American style is a disaster we can afford to do without. We should match their tarrifs and quota restrictions and insist that they are only there because of America's tarrif policy. It would give the Australian economy a magnificent and long-lasting lift.