[clug] FTA article

[david howe]

The so called FTA is a complete insult to anyones intelligence. Blind
freddy could see that its the an act of colonialism. The US position
speaks volumes for their respect for Australia, the Australian position
equally revealing for the implicit servitude.

No single act of the Howard government could be so destructive to our
national interests.

david

On Wed, 2004-07-21 at 13:33, Kim Holburn wrote:
> http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/19/1090089093287.html
> 
> > Why Latham should reject the FTA
> > This so-called free trade agreement is a humiliating sell-out, says 
> > Tim Colebatch.
> 
> Interesting take and one of the most anti-FTA articles I have seen.  
> Points out the real meat of the FTA:
> 
> >  This is really half a free trade agreement. It will mean free trade 
> > for American exports to Australia. The day the agreement begins, 99 
> > per cent of US exports will enter Australia duty-free, with complete 
> > free trade within 10 years. But it will not mean free trade for 
> > Australian exports to the US: not ever. The US will retain a ban on 
> > exports of Australia's world-leading fast ferries. It will limit 
> > Australia's sugar exports to token levels. It will exclude most 
> > Australian textile exports by tailor-made rules of origin.
> >
> >  The US will still severely limit Australian dairy exports. And it 
> > will maintain indefinitely quotas on Australian exports of beef and 30 
> > or so other areas of farm produce - openly for 18 years, and then 
> > reappear like Cheshire cats whenever US prices fall significantly, 
> > which analysts say happens every couple of years.
> >
> >  How could any Australian government agree to such a lopsided deal? We 
> > are proud to be a nation that walks tall, treats others as equals, and 
> > demands the same of them. Could you imagine Sir John McEwen, Bob Hawke 
> > or Paul Keating accepting this cringing, second-rate outcome? It is a 
> > humiliating sell-out.
> 
> Ouch.
> 
> And about IP:
> 
> >  The third red line Howard crossed to get this deal in time for the 
> > election was in agreeing to adopt US laws to protect copyright and 
> > other forms of intellectual property. This could mean absurdities such 
> > as accepting the patent a US firm has claimed on double-clicking your 
> > computer mouse, and endless litigation as US giants try to stamp out 
> > competition from Australia's open source software creators.
> >
> >  A knowledge economy needs to lean towards encouraging flexibility and 
> > innovation, not rewarding rent-seekers. We should be reducing the 
> > length of copyright and patent terms, not increasing them. And rather 
> > than signing away our right to use offset programs and government 
> > purchasing to develop new industries, we should have kept them out of 
> > this deal. Instead, we have ended up with a free trade agreement that 
> > does not deliver free trade, and instead invades a range of non-trade 
> > areas where our American friends frankly have no business to be.
> 
> 
> Kim
> -- 
> Kim Holburn
> IT Manager, Canberra Research Laboratory
> National Information and Communication Technology Australia
> Ph: +61 2 61258620 M: +61 417820641
> Email: kim.holburn at anu.edu.au  - PGP Public Key on request
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> Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
>                            -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961
-- 
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David Howe
www.qednet.biz
davidATqednet.biz
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