THE HOWARD government is currently engaged in secret negotiations to secure a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States that threatens our public services, the environment and jobs.
Hundreds of trade negotiators met behind closed doors in Hawaii last June. Another round of negotiations is planned for October 27 in Canberra.
If successful this deal will result in further deregulation and privatisation. It will give Australian and US multinationals more power, while threatening jobs, health care, education and the environment.
The FTA is being modelled on the North American Free Trade Agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico, which came into effect in 1995.
NAFTA gave corporations the right to sue governments for “restricting” their profits with environmental, health or other regulations. In the last eight years the Canadian government has introduced only two new environmental laws and recently was threatened by tobacco giant Phillip Morris over the introduction of new health warnings on cigarettes.
The FTA will include a lot more than trade issues. The terms of negotiations can include everything that affects the ability of companies to do business, such as services, investment, intellectual property, customs and quarantine rules, technical standards and environmental protection measures.
Pharmaceutical companies are pushing for changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to push up the price of drugs and therefore their profits.
Local council services such as water services, environmental provisions and waste collection could be threatened.
These trade agreements are designed to ram through the “privatise everything” agenda. The recent FTA with Singapore was concluded in the same week that the Coalition government announced that the rest of Telstra would be sold. Corporate access to telecommunications in each country was a major part of the negotiations.
Howard initiated the FTA with US President Bush three years ago. After September 11 and Australia’s participation in the war on Iraq, Howard hopes to receive the FTA bone as his reward.
Howard hopes to win greater access for Australian business to US markets and attract more US investment to Australia. This economic strategy is closely tied to his vision of Australia being the US “deputy” in Asia.
Foreign minister Downer spelt it out in a speech to the APEC studies centre: “An FTA would be an opportunity to render our economic relationship with the United States on the same sort of footing as our political relationship.”
Australia and the US are using bilateral trade agreements to bully and cajole smaller countries and rivals who resist dropping barriers to corporate interests.
Australian corporations are cheering the Liberals all the way. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Business Council of Australia, BHP Steel, News Limited, Telstra, Western Mining and the Commonwealth Bank are just some of the corporations lobbying hard for the deal. They will be trading away workers’ rights, health and pubic assets, and pocketing the change.
The Labor Party is supporting an FTA and turning its back on workers and the environment.
Yet many workers know the consequences of free market policies. Just look at Telstra: since the one-third privatisation in 1996 more than half the workforce has been retrenched or outsourced – more than 30,000 jobs.
Public hospitals and schools are crumbling as billions of dollars are siphoned off into private hands.
The day that the NAFTA agreement came into effect on January 1, 1995, the Zapatistas, who were from the indigenous people in Chiapas, Mexico, declared Basta! - Enough! Their uprising inspired millions around the world who knew that they were right to protest.
The Socialist Alliance says we need to derail the FTA. We are for outright opposition to any deal, to defend public assets, the PBS and Medicare, and the environment.
We oppose the full privatisation of Telstra. We are for public education and ending the handouts given to rich private schools, and call for Howard’s $2.5 billion private health insurance rebate to be put into better funding of Medicare instead.
A petition opposing the agreement is available on our website and we will be backing the call for pickets and demonstrations during the next round of negotiations in October.
Brian Webb is a member of the Socialist Alliance national executive.