A group of Australian exporters today [Wednesday] called for the proposed free trade agreement with the US to go ahead, regardless of whether Australia’s politically influential farm lobby group is happy with the agreement.
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Premiers of the two countries talked last year about the advantages of a free trade agreement, although it could yet take years to negotiate. Australian Prime Minister John Howard conceded that the agricultural trade was likely to prove problematic during the negotiations.
The National Farmers’ Federation, a key farm lobby group, is nominally in favour of a free trade agreement but has expressed concern about whether the US government will be able to overcome intense domestic pressure to reduce support for farming. “We’re sceptical about the willingness of the US to be fair dinkum about agriculture. It’s 25% of our exports. You don’t do a free trade agreement with Australia without agriculture,” NFF president Ian Donges said last year.
Nevertheless, Austa (the Australian United States Free Trade Agreement Business Group) today called for the agreement not to be held up unduly by the concerns of farmers: “The economic realities of the Australia-US economic relationship now go far beyond the farm gate,” the group said in a statement.
A number of leading Australian manufacturers are members of Austa, along with industry associations, Australian units of multinational US companies, minerals and energy producers, marketing concern Australian Dairy Corp. and dairy producer Bonlac Foods Ltd.
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